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Width   /wɪdθ/   Listen
Width

noun
1.
The extent of something from side to side.  Synonym: breadth.



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"Width" Quotes from Famous Books



... harnessed the dogs, and were off. Into the storm they drove, head down, buffeted by a screaming wind laden with stinging sleet that swept howling across the lake. All about them they heard the sharp reports of cracking ice. At any moment a fissure might open, and its width might be an inch or several yards. In the blinding gale they could see nothing. Literally, they had ...
— Man Size • William MacLeod Raine

... boarding-houses. Do you see how close together these hills draw at their feet? The hollow is at least a thousand feet across at the widest part, but down there at the road, where the stream emerges to the fields, they close in with natural buttresses, as it were, to not over a hundred feet in width. Well, right across there we'll build a dam, and there is enough water here to make a beautiful lake up as high ...
— The Early Bird - A Business Man's Love Story • George Randolph Chester

... fit together so exactly, without gum, that they hold their stores of honey and do not leak a bit. Well, a sharp-eyed observer has found, on one of these bees, an insect whose body is no longer than the width of the dot of this "i" (1-90th of an inch), and which is believed to be the smallest insect known. It is called Pteratomus, a word which means "winged atom," and it lives entirely upon the body ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 • Various

... they would appear; he knew that, just as soon as the streak of light grew in width from a faint thread to a wider band, he would see them, dignified, stately figures, like white-robed priests, walking desertwards from ...
— There was a King in Egypt • Norma Lorimer

... the more successful ones are insistent that the plowing be absolutely thorough. Every inch of the soil should be stirred to a certain depth, and that requires a plow so set that it does not turn a furrow-slice much wider than the point can cut. Evenness in depth and width of furrow is ...
— Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement • Alva Agee

... enemy, we had to take the field to the south to reach the church. This took us over several ditches breast deep in water and grown up with water plants. These ditches, however, were not over eight or ten feet in width. The howitzer was taken to pieces and carried by the men to its destination. When I knocked for admission a priest came to the door who, while extremely polite, declined to admit us. With the little Spanish then at my command, I explained to him that ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... rapids to Yaouri, and thence traced it to the sea in the Bight of Benin. On their way, they discovered the Benue, which joins the Niger two hundred and seventy miles from the ocean, with a volume of water and a width nearly equal to its own. They encountered a large number of canoes, nearly fifty feet in length, armed in some cases with a brass six-pounder at the bow, and each manned by sixty or seventy men actively engaged in the slave-trade. Forty of these canoes were found together ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... exclaimed, and took a turn to and fro across the width of the lane, and seeing Small Porges watching him, caught him suddenly up in his arms, and ...
— The Money Moon - A Romance • Jeffery Farnol

... the copper disk was adjusted, the small magnetic poles being about one-half an inch apart, and the edge of the plate inserted about half their width between them. One of the galvanometer wires was passed twice or thrice loosely round the brass axis of the plate, and the other attached to a conductor, which itself was retained by the hand in contact with the amalgamated edge of the disk at the ...
— A History of Science, Volume 3(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... the main line of communication to the Punjab, upon the retention of which our very existence as a force depended. Its left rested on the Jumna, unfordable from the time the snow on the higher ranges begins to melt until the rainy season is over, and of sufficient width to prevent our being enfiladed by field-guns; although, on the immediate right, bazaars, buildings, and garden-walls afforded cover to the enemy, the enclosed nature of the ground was so far advantageous that it embarrassed and impeded them in their attempts to organize ...
— Forty-one years in India - From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief • Frederick Sleigh Roberts

... on all sides by precipices higher than its width, was minute by minute becoming more overshadowed by evening. The misty gloom, usual at twilight, became thicker; it was like a growth of darkness at the bottom of a well. The opening of the creek seaward, a narrow passage, traced on the almost night-black interior a pallid rift ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo

... understand by poetry all literary production which attains the power of giving pleasure by its form, as distinct from its matter. Only in this varied literary form can art command that width, variety, delicacy of resources, which will enable it to deal with the conditions of modern life. What modern art has to do in the service of culture is so to rearrange the details of modern life, so to reflect it, that it may satisfy the spirit. [231] And what does the spirit need in the ...
— The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry • Walter Horatio Pater

... been disturbed by earthquakes, which on September 27 and 28, 1538, became almost continuous. The low shore was slightly elevated, so that the sea retreated, leaving bare a strip about two hundred feet in width. The surface cracked, steam escaped, and at last, early on the morning of the 29th, a greater rent was made, from which were vomited furiously "smoke, fire, stones and mud composed of ashes, making at the time of its opening a noise like ...
— The San Francisco Calamity • Various

... pleaded and reasoned and entreated, I kept my earnest gaze on his face, and eagerly watched,—watched with trembling hope and fear the effect of my words. I had drawn back from him as far as the width of the library, and my hands were clasped together and pressed upon my bosom. I did not know that I stood directly beneath the picture of the Italian flower-girl, till I saw his glance uplifted from my face to hers, with an expression that recalled the morning when he ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... will be to us a floating home, and to which we shall become really attached before we leave its deck, and the shores of the Nile. It is a queerly shaped vessel, entirely different from any other which has ever carried you over the waters. The length is about seventy-two feet, and the width between fourteen and fifteen feet at the broadest part; it has a sharp prow, and stands deep in the water forward; it is flat-bottomed, like all Nile boats, on account of the shallow ...
— Harper's Young People, January 20, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... were streets. No metropolis on earth ever had its blocks laid out with such unvarying exactness. This Mercurian city contained none but perfect equilateral triangles, and the streets themselves were of absolutely uniform width. ...
— The Lord of Death and the Queen of Life • Homer Eon Flint

... in these few words, given no bad description of the prospect that now lay in their front. The brook was irregular in its width, sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks, and at others spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas that might be termed ponds. Everywhere along its bands were the moldering relics of dead trees, ...
— The Last of the Mohicans • James Fenimore Cooper

... downward in a generally southwestern direction for about two hundred miles. The total length of the island, from Cape Maisi on the east to Cape San Antonio on the west, is about seven hundred and thirty miles. Its width varies from a maximum, in Oriente Province, of about one hundred and sixty miles, to a minimum, in Havana Province, of about twenty-two miles. It has a general coast line of about twenty-two hundred miles, or, following all its sinuosities, of about seven thousand miles. ...
— Cuba, Old and New • Albert Gardner Robinson

... the youngest of the three children of a high-caste Hindoo couple in Bengal. Her father, who survives them all, the Baboo Govin Chunder Dutt, is himself distinguished among his countrymen for the width of his views and the vigor of his intelligence. His only son, Abju, died in 1865, at the age of fourteen, and left his two younger sisters to console their parents. Aru, the elder daughter, born in 1854, was eighteen months senior to Toru, the subject of this memoir, who ...
— Hindu Literature • Epiphanius Wilson

... reporter for the Newcastle Journal was in describing the accident which happened at Bradfield, near Sheffield, in the spring of 1864. The dam of the great reservoir from which Sheffield drew its water supply burst, and a torrent of water, many feet in depth, and nearly a quarter of a mile in width, suddenly rushed down a narrow valley, and flooded the lower part of Sheffield. The tragic occurrence was subsequently described by Charles Reade in his novel, "Put Yourself in His Place." Reade was not an eye-witness ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.

... this, one corner of her territory remains to her, a wedge-shaped piece, ten miles or so in width at the coast, narrowing to nothing at a point less than thirty miles inland. And in that tragic fragment there remains hardly an undestroyed town. Her revenues are gone, being collected as an indemnity, for God knows what, by the Germans. King Albert ...
— Kings, Queens And Pawns - An American Woman at the Front • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... the land. But I visit always with a peculiar pleasure those districts at home where a large population has been able to find a competent livelihood. One island known to many of you, namely, Tiree, has upon a surface of twelve miles long by about two in width over three thousand souls. At the present day I find that some of those who have visited Ontario, or who know from their friends what this land is like, now come to us and say, "We are tempted to go to Canada, for each of our friends there has for himself a farm as big as the whole ...
— Memories of Canada and Scotland - Speeches and Verses • John Douglas Sutherland Campbell

... meant a good deal at that date. It implied a doublet of velvet or satin, puffed and slashed exceedingly, and often covered with costly embroidery or gold lace; trunk hose, padded to an enormous width, matching the doublet in cost, and often in pattern; light-coloured silk stockings, broad-toed shoes, with extremely high heels, and silver buckles, or gold-edged shoe-strings; garters of broad silk ribbons, often ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt

... becomes necessary to determine upon the width between the two trusses. For a single track bridge for a railroad, 14 ft. is the usual width adopted, and for a highway bridge, from 12 to 16 ft. When a double track is required, three trusses are usually employed, with a width for each roadway ...
— Instructions on Modern American Bridge Building • G. B. N. Tower

... For thee! For thee!" Then jumped to the mantelpiece, and, catching up a lighted candle, flashed it twice across the window's width, and broke again into ...
— Cleek, the Master Detective • Thomas W. Hanshew

... majority to believe, by faith, that W. B. Yeats is a genius. The one reassuring aspect of the literary affair is that the passionate few are passionate about the same things. A continuance of interest does, in actual practice, lead ultimately to the same judgments. There is only the difference in width of interest. Some of the passionate few lack catholicity, or, rather, the whole of their interest is confined to one narrow channel; they have none left over. These men help specially to vitalise the reputations of the narrower geniuses: such as Crashaw. But ...
— LITERARY TASTE • ARNOLD BENNETT

... a broad street, which had dwellings on both sides, whose height and width left nothing to be desired. The temperature was mild, the air free from unpleasant odours, and I felt not the smallest difficulty in breathing. Further along there were several cross-streets, and my guide called my attention to a hole in the ceiling for air, like three ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould

... directions for goin' an' she says when she see for the first time just the whole width of what she was let in to she most fell over ...
— Susan Clegg and a Man in the House • Anne Warner

... is the width of three flat houses, which stand behind it. There are no gates in the fence between the yards of the houses and the lot, but Nick found a wide board that could be pulled off and replaced ...
— The Crime of the French Cafe and Other Stories • Nicholas Carter

... stood on a bluff overlooking the river and commanded a fine view of the surrounding country. In shape it was a parallelogram, being about three hundred and fifty-six feet in length, and one hundred and fifty in width. Surrounded by a stockade fence twelve feet high, with a yard wide walk running around the inside, and with bastions at each corner large enough to contain six defenders, the fort presented an almost impregnable defense. The blockhouse was two stories in height, the second story ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... diagnosis turn largely upon the mesh-width in the superficial net. This comes out in the 'opis' following the description, and upon this the European decision in Rostafinski's favor as against S. morgani largely turns. Tropical gatherings are probably always darker, and evidently from such, from the north coast of South America, the ...
— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

... one end I placed my couch, table, bookshelves, and other necessary furniture, with all the stores needed for my voyage, and with a further weight sufficient to preserve equilibrium. At the other I made a garden with soil three feet deep and five feet in width, divided into two parts so as to permit access to the windows. I filled each garden closely with shrubs and flowering plants of the greatest possible variety, partly to absorb animal waste, partly in the hope ...
— Across the Zodiac • Percy Greg

... fallow at certain intervals, though he also made use of manure, marl, etc., and in 1772 tried the experiment of sowing two bushels of salt per acre upon fallow ground, dividing the plot up into strips eight feet in width and sowing the alternate strips in order that he might be able ...
— George Washington: Farmer • Paul Leland Haworth

... various kinds put on in varied modes. The most practicable of these is a system prepared by Daft. Most iron vessels are now constructed by every other plate lapping the edges of the one between. He proposes, instead of having the plates all the same width, to have one wide and one very narrow plate. This would leave a trough between the two wide plates of the depth of the thickness of the plates. He proposes to force into this trough very tightly pieces of teak, and to the teak, ...
— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various

... selected for the great final game was on a narrow strip of land between a lake and the river. It was about three quarters of a mile long and a quarter of a mile in width. The spectators had already ranged themselves all along the two sides, as well as at the two ends, which were somewhat higher than the middle. The soldiers appointed to keep order furnished much of the entertainment of the ...
— Indian Boyhood • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

... what seem a number of double ramparts, fronting each other, and separated by deep square ditches exactly parallel in the sides, traverse the irregular level in every direction. The ditches vary in width from one to twelve feet; and the ramparts, rising from three to six feet over them, are perpendicular as the walls of houses, where they front each other, and descend on the opposite sides in irregular slopes. The iron ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

... men came nearer and nearer. He could hear them whispering to each other, and they seemed to block the entire width of the narrow alley. He could not make out their number, but he was sure there must ...
— Frank Merriwell's Races • Burt L. Standish

... showers of rain, I distinguished the great family likeness. The 8th of August passed pleasantly enough, and for those souls which can absorb the sublimity of water, and soar to the infinity of space, the scene might have seemed wondrous in width and height; but the subsequent day, while sitting below and reading, I heard a tremendous racket on deck, and before I could exactly arrange the different sounds, the main-sail and gaff-topsail came to the deck "with a run;" and for aught I knew to the contrary, but strongly ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... waited breathlessly listening to the silence of the ice sea, the lake groaned close beside them, and suddenly the floe on which they stood parted from the field nearer shore. In a few minutes the lane of open water was six feet in width. Sommers pointed to it, and without a word they struck out to the north, weaving their way in and out of the floes, now clambering over heaved-up barriers of ice, now flying along an unscarred field, again making their way cautiously across sheets of shivered surface ice ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... time of William's accession. It was probably intended to decorate the cathedral of Bayeux, in Normandy, France, where it was originally placed. Some have supposed it to be the work of his Queen, Matilda. The entire length is two hundred and fourteen feet and the width about twenty inches. It represents events in English history from the last of Edward the Confessor's reign to the battle of Hastings. As a guide to a knowledge of the armor, weapons, and costume of the period, it is of very great value. ...
— The Leading Facts of English History • D.H. Montgomery

... are to help find the spots mentioned in the notes. (I took out the line numbers to keep the line width as close to 65 ...
— An Icelandic Primer - With Grammar, Notes, and Glossary • Henry Sweet

... in the rock to which Holman had pointed was a perpendicular crevice about four feet in length, but possessing only a width of six inches. It separated two rock masses that were fully eighteen inches thick, and as we wriggled noiselessly toward it we saw that it gave us a glimpse of the interior of a huge cavern, the part of which that was just inside our point of observation being illuminated by a swinging ship's lamp ...
— The White Waterfall • James Francis Dwyer

... the west coast may need to be reconsidered. On the west coast, areas of more humid tropical vegetation and climate are more distant from the coastline as one proceeds northwestward from Nayarit to Sonora. The broad band of humid tropical vegetation along the coast is progressively reduced in width, and crowded back against the mountains, and still farther north consists of only small scattered remnants that are difficult to visit, in the bottoms of ...
— Neotropical Bats from Northern Mexico • Sydney Anderson

... well-stored picture house, No dream, rather a thing most keenly real, The memory of a moment, when with feet, Arrested and spell bound, and captured eyes, Made wide with joy and wonder, I beheld The spaces of a white and wintery land Swept with the fire of sunset, all its width Vale, forest, town, and misty eminence, A miracle of color ...
— Among the Millet and Other Poems • Archibald Lampman

... lies so...." Hilario Trinfan's crooked body pulled together in a lopsided perch as he squatted range fashion beside the morning campfire. He had smoothed a space of ground the width of his two hands and was setting out twigs and stones to create a miniature relief map of the countryside. "Here is the water hole to which the Pinto comes. Above that we were—moving in from this side. To do so we crossed here." A black-rimmed nail ...
— Rebel Spurs • Andre Norton

... for Rob Roy to free himself from his keeper. I was directed to keep close beside them, and accommodated for the purpose with a troop-horse. We were as closely surrounded by the soldiers as the width of the road would permit, and had always at least one, if not two, on each side, with pistol in hand. Andrew Fairservice, furnished with a Highland pony, of which they had made prey somewhere or other, was permitted to ride among the other domestics, ...
— Rob Roy, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... which on either side flanked the gateway, and which were connected by an immense arch flung from one to the other, were particularly magnificent. No sooner had we passed through, than we found ourselves in a street lined as it were with palaces. It was of great width—-we have no street like it in this respect—of an exact level, and stretched onward farther than the eye could distinctly reach, being terminated by another gate similar to that by which we had entered. The buildings on either side were altogether of marble, of Grecian design—the ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware

... and having peeled them, continue to cut them up as if peeling them in ribbons of equal width; then throw the shavings into a frying-pan, and fry of a fine brown; they must be constantly moved with a silver fork to keep the pieces separate. They should be laid on a cloth to drain, and placed ...
— The Jewish Manual • Judith Cohen Montefiore

... fond of the Mahometan faith. The generality of the negroes go quite naked, except a piece of goat skin before; but the lords who are able to procure such, wear cotton shirts, which are spun and manufactured by their women. Their webs are only a span in width, as they have not sufficient art to construct and use wider looms; so that they are obliged to sew five, six, or more of these webs together, when it is required to make any large piece of work. The shirts reach half way down the thighs, and have wide sleeves which; cover only half of their ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr

... a tree nearly four feet in diameter in a gap near the Rockland Mine, where a hill had been actually cut asunder by these ancient miners, and a deep valley formed by the removal of the rock. Until very recently this valley was not recognized as an ancient mine; for, being ten rods in width, and cutting nearly at right angles across the strata of the rock that formed the hill, it was considered too extensive to have been made by human hands, and was supposed to be the result of natural causes. But about two years since, during a very dry ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 89, March, 1865 • Various

... day after the surrender of Steenwyk Maurice marched away and laid siege to Coevorden. This city, which was most strongly fortified, lay between two great swamps, between which there was a passage of about half a mile in width. ...
— By England's Aid or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) • G.A. Henty

... town and works, which altogether did not cover half a mile of ground in length and nothing like it in width, may be conceived by the accounts I have already given. I may remark that from one end to the other it was strewed with shot and shell, and had truly the appearance of a ploughed field. I must not close my account of the public events ...
— Hurricane Hurry • W.H.G. Kingston

... yesterday as the road. Something extraordinarily broad, spread out and titanic, stretched over the steppe by way of a road. It was a grey streak well trodden down and covered with dust, like all roads. Its width puzzled Yegorushka and brought thoughts of fairy tales to his mind. Who travelled along that road? Who needed so much space? It was strange and unintelligible. It might have been supposed that giants with immense strides, such as ...
— The Bishop and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... will be seen how compact and efficient these little steam plants are when a ten-horse-power engine, boiler, water-tank, and gasoline reservoir holding enough to drive the machine one hundred miles, are stored in a carriage with a wheel-base of less than seven feet and a width of five feet, and still leave ample ...
— Stories of Inventors - The Adventures Of Inventors And Engineers • Russell Doubleday

... the signboard of the White Lamb, and before the front-door, stood a couple of men who chatted as they passed a tankard of beer to each other. Captain Salt could not see their faces owing to the extreme width of their hat-brims. But he turned a shade paler, and drawing back from the window stepped to the door, which opened upon the landing. Moving softly to the balusters, he peered over. Directly beneath him, ...
— The Blue Pavilions • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... told me, the Ghost is an eighty-ton schooner of a remarkably fine model. Her beam, or width, is twenty-three feet, and her length a little over ninety feet. A lead keel of fabulous but unknown weight makes her very stable, while she carries an immense spread of canvas. From the deck to the truck of the maintopmast is something over a hundred feet, ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London

... house in which he was born has been preserved, and it stood on the spot where now rises a lofty granite warehouse, bearing, in raised letters beneath the cornice, the inscription, "BIRTHPLACE OF FRANKLIN." The house measured twenty feet in width, and was about thirty feet long. It was three stories high in appearance, the third being the attic. On the lower floor of the main house there was only one room, which was about twenty feet square, and served the family for the triple purpose of parlour, sitting-room, and dining-hall. ...
— The Printer Boy. - Or How Benjamin Franklin Made His Mark. An Example for Youth. • William M. Thayer

... stretching along the back of the cave, was a long row of large galvanized iron tanks, strongly made, with heavily studded seams, each with a great copper tap. They were ranged in a most orderly line, like some grey monsters carefully drilled. They were all exactly the same width, the same height, and the copper ...
— The Island Mystery • George A. Birmingham

... to Mercer I dashed forward directly at the doorway. I think the Mercutian had not yet seen us; he stood quite still, his body blocking the full width ...
— The Fire People • Ray Cummings

... twenty-one inches long or longer, unite them with a strip of the cloth six inches wide and sufficiently long to allow of flaps extending free at the top to fold over from both sides across the opening; you will then have a box-like bag. Make one large flap of width to fit the top of the back, and length to cross over on front, covering the smaller flaps and fastening down on the outside of the front of the pack. All three flaps may have pockets to hold ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... had no intention of throwing himself with them into the midst of a conflict, in which he would neither be able to see nor to command; but the Polish lances were ready couched and condensed behind him; they covered the whole width of the ground; and they pushed him before them with all the rapidity of their steeds; he could neither detach himself from them nor stop; he had no resource but to charge in front of the regiment, just where ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur

... if some young woman student sprained her ankle in this absurd environment, I should be most embarrassed to explain it. Apparently it was a hay barn, whose vague dimensions were lost in shadow. Rafters crossed its width about twenty feet above our heads, and here and there a few boards lay across the rafters, furnishing foothold for anyone who might wish to operate the ancient pulley that was doubtless once used for lifting bales. The northern half of the ...
— Humorous Ghost Stories • Dorothy Scarborough

... beauty of all the landscape. Well, let us imagine this hillock rising, rising still, without indeed changing at all its shape, and preserving, although on a greater scale, the same proportions between its width and height. To begin with, our impression of displeasure will but increase with the hillock itself, which will the more strike the sight, and which will be the more repulsive. But continue; raise it up twice as high as a tower, and insensibly the displeasure will ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... vision of what otherwise would be unforgettable and inspiring. It is much the same everywhere. In Chicago the Michigan Boulevard, with the lovely lake on one side and grand buildings on the other, running at enormous width for a long distance, is one of the finest broadways in the world; but it is spoilt by a vulgar erection at the end, advertising something or other against the sky, in electric bulbs of rapid and ...
— My Impresssions of America • Margot Asquith

... suggested by the word just used, we may remember, almost with astonishment, that there was no British naval uniform for anyone below the rank of officer till after 1860. Now, at every inspection, much time is taken up in ascertaining if the narrow tape embroidery on a frock collar is of the regulation width, and if the rows of tape are the proper distance apart. The diameter of a cloth cap is officially defined; and any departure from the regulation number of inches (and fractions of an inch) is as sure of ...
— Sea-Power and Other Studies • Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge

... untooled flat rock. On the right of the walk, as one enters, a space of green lawn, a great tree, and rustic chairs invite one to rest in the shade; while on the left, the yard is filled with old-fashioned flowers, and a row of flowering shrubs and bushes extends the full width of the lot along the picket fence which parallels the board walk of the tree-bordered street. The fence, like the house, is ...
— Helen of the Old House • Harold Bell Wright

... on the gravel drive, and Fred slammed to the door, and like a sentry on guard paced before it. After a period which seemed to stretch over many minutes there came from the inside a cautious knocking. With equal caution Fred opened the door of the width of a finger, and put his ...
— The Red Cross Girl • Richard Harding Davis

... they are going to take Jamaica Pond, and have a park or driveway around the pond; then the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, that has a parkway one hundred feet in width, where you can drive or walk at your pleasure. In West Roxbury they are to have a mountain-park, which will be the largest (about five hundred acres); and it is well called a providence, because it ...
— Parks for the People - Proceedings of a Public Meeting held at Faneuil Hall, June 7, 1876 • Various

... deliberately produced a machine which was entirely dependent upon the pilot's skill for its stability. The dimensions of the Voisin may be given for comparative purposes, and were as follows: Span 33 feet with a chord (width from back to front) of main planes of 6 1/2 feet, giving a total area of 430 square feet. The 50 horse-power Antoinette engine, which was enclosed in the body (or 'nacelle ') in the front of which the pilot sat, drove a propeller behind, revolving between ...
— A History of Aeronautics • E. Charles Vivian

... next morning, we steered North 1/2 West, a course farther to seaward than we had previously taken, in order to see the reefs more distinctly, and to prove the width and extent of this part of the channel; but the sun was shining in the direction of our course, and the shadows of the clouds upon the water were at times so deceptious that, whilst they often caused appearances of reefs where none existed, they concealed ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... a local motion-picture theater which she often frequented. It was one of those small affairs, the width of a city block, with a narrow aisle running down either side and all emergency exit upon the alley at the far end of each aisle. The theater was darkened when she entered and, a quick glance apprizing her that no one followed her in immediately, she continued on down one of the side ...
— The Efficiency Expert • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... same into a tin basin (also chained up in like manner); and scrubbing my face with the jack towel. At night, shall I say? I don't know that you would like to look into the cabin at night, only to see me lying on a temporary shelf exactly the width of this sheet of paper when it's open (I measured it this morning),[58] with one man above me, and another below; and, in all, eight-and-twenty in a low cabin, which you can't stand upright in with your hat on. I don't think you would like to look in at breakfast-time either, ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... refuge in her own native land. The thought of returning to Maryland, to meet the astonishment, the wonder, the conjectures, the inquiries, and perhaps the legal investigation that might lead to the exposure and punishment of Thurston, was insupportable to her heart. No, no! rather let the width of the ocean divide her from all those horrors. Undoubtedly her friends believed her dead—let it be so—let her remain as dead to them. She should leave no kindred behind her, to suffer by her loss—should wrong no human being. True, there were Miriam and ...
— The Missing Bride • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... took after his French rather than his English ancestors. Of more than average height for his age, he was apparently slighter in build than his schoolfellows. It was not that he lacked width of chest, but that his bones were smaller and his frame less heavy. The English boys, among themselves, sometimes spoke of him as "skinny," a word considered specially appropriate to Frenchmen; but though he lacked their roundness and fulness ...
— Saint Bartholomew's Eve - A Tale of the Huguenot WarS • G. A. Henty

... population because the king induces many honourable merchants to go there from his cities, and there is much water in it. Besides this the king made a tank[392] there, which, as it seems to me, has the width of a falcon-shot,[393] and it is at the mouth of two hills, so that all the water which comes from either one side or the other collects there; and, besides this, water comes to it from more than three leagues ...
— A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India • Robert Sewell

... Dome." Taking then from his haversack a Bengal light, he ignited it and threw it into the dark void. The sulphurous light shot up and up into a dome unlike anything built by human hands, unless it might be the interior of some tremendous tower, eighty feet in width, and nearly two hundred in height, which the beholder viewed from without, looking inwards through a window placed at two thirds of the entire ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867 • Various

... is right, and when you have so decided,"—he drew his sword, as was his habit when greatly moved, and placed his broad hand upon my head,—"know then that God is with you, and swerve not from thy course the width of ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... Mr. Mill, with all his width of knowledge and sympathy, has achieved so little of a reputation as a miscellaneous writer, part of the reason no doubt is, that he sternly repressed his desultory tendencies, and devoted his powers to special branches of knowledge, attaining in them a distinction that obscured his other writings. ...
— John Stuart Mill; His Life and Works • Herbert Spencer, Henry Fawcett, Frederic Harrison and Other

... and pleasant as I can at a parcel of strangers.... I was not well, or in spirits, and laboring under a severe cold, which I acquired on board the steamboat that brought down the Delaware.... Neither the Raritan nor the Delaware struck me in any way except by their great width. These vast streams naturally suggest the mighty resources which a country so watered presents to the commercial enterprise of its inhabitants. The breadth of these great rivers dwarfs their shores and makes their banks appear flat and uninteresting, ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... which is brought home every day to those who are engaged in the actual management of public affairs, especially in the East. Mr. Mitra, moreover, makes various praiseworthy efforts to dispel certain illusions frequently nourished by some of his countrymen, and to diminish the width of the religious gulf which separates the rulers from the ruled. He quotes with approval Sir Rajendra Mookerjee's complete, albeit facile, exposure of the fallacy, dear to the hearts of many Indian press writers and platform speakers, ...
— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring

... ground and clasp their right hands. A leader starts out, clears this barrier, and all the rest of the players follow. Then one of the sitting children clasps his unoccupied left hand upon the upraised thumb of his companion, thus raising the height of the barrier by the width of the palm. The line starts again and all jump this. Then the second sitter adds his palm and thumb to the barrier, and the line of players attack this. It is more than likely that some one will fail to clear this last barrier, and the one who does so squats down, pressing close to the other ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee

... it fell out that Ivory and Waitstill walked together in the cool of the afternoon to the meeting-house on Tory Hill. Waitstill kept the beaten path on one side and Ivory that on the other, so that the width of the country road, deep in dust, was between them, yet their nearness seemed so tangible a thing that each could feel the heart beating in the other's side. Their talk was only that of tried friends, a talk interrupted by long beautiful silences; silences ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin

... Before the plate may be used again, the lug must be extended to its original length. To do this, clean the surfaces of the lug carefully, lay the plate on a sheet of asbestos, and place an iron form having a slot of the correct width, length, and thickness, as shown in Figure 150. Use a medium hissing flame, and melt the upper edge of the lug, and then run in lead from the lead burning strip to fill the slot in the iron form. The plate may ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte

... the open space which separated the Rouget house from the Hochon house,—a sort of avenue of weakly lindens, two hundred feet long and of the same width as the rue Grande Narette. When the nephew arrived, Kouski, in polished boots, black cloth trousers, white waistcoat, and black coat, announced him. The table was set in the large hall, and Joseph, who easily ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... number of what are called Cases,[2-*] properly fitted up, which are placed before the Compositor. The Compositor then places the Manuscript[2-] before him, and taking a small iron frame, or measure, adapted to the purpose, fixes it by a screw to the width which the Page he is to set up is intended to be, and commences the putting it into Type, in the following manner. Supposing the first words of the Manuscript to be "The City of London," he first selects the Capital Letter T, then the Lower-Case letter ...
— The Author's Printing and Publishing Assistant • Frederick Saunders

... of white (top, almost triple width) and light blue with three orange dolphins in an interlocking circular design ...
— The 1990 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... accommodation in a house where he approved of the countenance of the host, to the best where the traits or lines of the landlord's face were irregular, or did not coincide with his ideas of physiognomical propriety. The cut of a face, its expression, the length of the nose, the width or smallness of the mouth, the form of the eyelids or of the ears, the colour or thickness of the hair, with the shape and tout ensemble of the head, were always minutely considered and discussed before he entered into any ...
— Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Complete - Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London • Lewis Goldsmith

... rubbish, and go into a street that has already been cleared. The first thing you will observe is that it is very narrow. It is evidently not intended for a fashionable drive. But few of the streets are any wider than this one. The greatest width of a street in Pompeii is seven yards, and some are only two and a half yards, sidewalks and all. The middle of the street is paved with blocks of lava. The sidewalks are raised, and it is evident the owners ...
— Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy • Frank Richard Stockton

... very well," she answered, dryly, and edged away as far as the width of the seat would permit. "It would have been better for you to lead their horse up into the road, and then she could have got in without your help. Her mother got ...
— A Modern Instance • William Dean Howells

... about three hundred feet in length and fifty in width, but not more than six feet in depth. It was like a long raft. The rowers, two hundred in number, sat on a level with the water, one hundred on each side. The oars were small, being not more than twelve feet in length, but made of very light, tough material, ...
— A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder • James De Mille

... emotional drama of Witt Parfitts was to be played, lacked the usual characteristics of a modern place of entertainment. It was far too high for its width and breadth; it was badly illuminated; it was draughty in winter and stuffy in summer, being completely deprived of ventilation. Had it been under the control of the County Council it would have been instantly condemned as dangerous in case of fire, for its gangways were ...
— Buried Alive: A Tale of These Days • Arnold Bennett

... webbed; no supernumerary tubercles on soles or palms; no tarsal fold; elongate anal sheath, anal opening on lower surface of thighs; head broad, interorbital space 2.5 times width of upper eyelid; snout subacuminate in dorsal profile, strongly sloping in lateral profile; tympanum visible in males, concealed in females; ...
— Systematic Status of a South American Frog, Allophryne ruthveni Gaige • John D. Lynch

... footnote, at least, is due to the admirable example set before all young writers in the width of literary sympathy displayed by Mr. Swinburne. He runs forth to welcome merit, whether in Dickens or Trollope, whether in Villon, Milton, or Pope. This is, in criticism, the attitude we should all seek to preserve; not only in that, but in ...
— The Art of Writing and Other Essays • Robert Louis Stevenson

... atmosphere is one of decorum, authority, subordination. Introspection is disregarded and even suppressed. To be active, good-humoured, sensible, is the supreme development. Hugh indeed got nothing but good out of his school-days; the simple code of the place gave him balance and width of view, and the conventionality which is the danger of these institutions never soaked into his mind; convention was indeed for him like a suit of bright polished armour, in which he moved about like a youthful knight. ...
— Beside Still Waters • Arthur Christopher Benson

... "I am no duellist, as I told you; and it seems to me that this equalizes our chances, for I can no more fail of hitting my man at this distance than he of shooting me dead across the width of the room. And, sir—if I am to—die to-night, I shall most earnestly endeavor to take ...
— The Amateur Gentleman • Jeffery Farnol et al

... Black Bear very long to pass the green islands near the delta. The river there looks like an ocean. In fact, the main branch of the Amazon is from fifty miles to two hundred miles in width. Some of the tributaries are a hundred miles wide. It is from fifty to two hundred feet deep. The water is always dark colored because of the wash brought down from the uplands. For a long time it did not ...
— Boy Scouts in an Airship • G. Harvey Ralphson

... went in, Mrs. Davis was standing behind the counter, dressed in a cap of wonderful grandeur, and a red tabinet gown, which rustled among the pots and jars, sticking out from her to a tremendous width, inflated by its own magnificence and a substratum of crinoline. Charley had never before seen her arrayed in such royal robes. Her accustomed maid was waiting as usual on the guests, and another girl also was assisting; but Norah did not appear to ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope

... Lady Fal for home, the sun was sinking fast, and Radley pulled his swiftest, as he wished to be at Graysroof before dark. So I lay in the bows and wondered at the straightness of his back, and Doe nestled in the stern and admired the width ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond

... a kind of paper on which students write their themes or composition. It is of the size of an ordinary letter-sheet, contains eighteen or nineteen lines placed at wide intervals, and is ruled in red ink with a margin a little less than an inch in width. ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... centuries by the stream that still flowed down its center. Presently, however, Mallory saw that in certain places the stone walls had been cut back in such a way that the space on either side of the stream never narrowed to a width of less than four feet. He saw other evidence of human handiwork too—dungeons. They were little more than shallow caves now, though, their iron gratings having rusted ...
— A Knyght Ther Was • Robert F. Young

... and smiling, he suddenly started to walk and then ran swiftly over to the ring. By the time he reached it, somewhat out of breath, he was little more than twice as high as the width of its band. Without pausing, he leaped up, and sat astraddle, leaning over and holding to it tightly with his hands. In another moment he was on his feet, on the upper edge of the ring, walking carefully along its ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings

... he is conspicuous in his blue, brown, or olive-green coat, and waistcoat of glaring color—scarlet, or blue, or green striped—but it must be showy; and a pair of trowsers, generally blue, with a width nearly as ample as a sailor's, and not only guiltless of the foppery of being strapped down, but if he find the road rather dirty, or the grass dewy, they are turned up three or four inches at the ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850 • Various

... low, but of sufficient width to allow two persons to pass each other, and after penetrating it a short distance he found that it took a turn to the left. At this angle he was perplexed by coming into contact with fragments of charred wood. Wondering for what purpose these had been brought there, ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore

... I made a mark on the side of the cliff, to show the width and height that the cave should be cut. Then each took an axe to try what kind of stuff our rock was made of. We found it a hard kind of stone; and, as we were not used to this sort of work, we had not done much when the time came for ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson Told in Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin

... have been less than one thousand feet, in width from three to five hundred yards, and at the point where we first struck it, its sides were nearly perpendicular. A sickly sensation of dizziness was felt by all three of us, as we looked down, as it were, into the very ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... we went along at a good pace, but I had a strong inclination to laugh at the face he made when he saw me at Tubingen. Baletti's servant was a youth, and slightly built; I was tall, and quite a man. He opened his eyes to their utmost width, and told me I was not the same gentleman that was in the carriage when he started. "You're drunk," said I, putting in his hand four times what he was accustomed to get, and the poor devil did not say a word. Who has ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... as wide as the opening of the Fire-place in front, and the sides of it are of course perpendicular to it, and parallel to each other,—in the Fire-places I recommend, the back (i k, Fig. 3) is only about one-third of the width of the opening of the Fire-place in front (a,b), and consequently that the two sides of covings of the Fire-place (a i and b k), instead of being perpendicular to the back, are inclined to it at an angle of about 135 degrees; and in consequence of this position, ...
— ESSAYS, Political, Economical and Philosophical. Volume 1. • Benjamin Rumford

... day we came to the Platte River; broad, muddy stream, at some points a mile or more in width; shallow, but running rapidly, between low banks; its many small islands wholly covered by growths of cottonwood trees and small willows. From these islands we obtained from time to time the fuel needed for the camp, as we took our course along the river's southerly shore; and occasionally added ...
— Crossing the Plains, Days of '57 - A Narrative of Early Emigrant Tavel to California by the Ox-team Method • William Audley Maxwell

... objectionable that I planned to plant a thick hedge of willows along the bank to shut off the view of the pond from the house.... I examined the pond on June 15th and found large masses of algae covering an area several hundred feet in length and from twenty to forty feet in width. No microscopical examination was made of the growth, but I was informed that it seemed to be largely composed of filaments of Spirogyra and other Confervae. On June 18th the treatment was begun.... In one week the growth had sunk and the pond was clear water. I examined the ...
— The Home Medical Library, Volume V (of VI) • Various

... was a glorious one, the full moon shining down upon the waters and turning to silver the sands of the vast desert that stretched away to the horizon on either side. This canal through which we had passed had a mean depth of 27 feet and varies from 250 to 350 feet in width, its length from sea to sea being 87 miles. The banks on both sides were barren of verdure and there was but little to be seen save the Canal itself, which is an enduring monument to the brains of Ferdinand ...
— A Ball Player's Career - Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson • Adrian C. Anson

... is three hundred yards wide at the point where it receives the waters of Medicine (Sun) River, which is one hundred and thirty-seven yards in width. The united current continues three hundred and twenty-eight poles to a small rapid on the north side, from which it gradually widens to fourteen hundred yards, and at the distance of five hundred and forty-eight poles reaches the head ...
— First Across the Continent • Noah Brooks

... made by cutting the stalk of the reed lengthwise into very thin strips. These strips were laid side by side on a board until the desired width was obtained. Another layer of shorter strips was then laid across the long ones entirely covering them. This mat, or "net" as it was technically called, was then soaked in the water of the Nile. Whether there was any particular virtue in the Nile water, which is always more ...
— Books Before Typography - Typographic Technical Series for Apprentices #49 • Frederick W. Hamilton

... much too long, and so ample in width that they seem to need only a belt at the ankle to turn them into perfect Russian blouses. But English and German soldiers not only appear, but are, in perfect condition, as though they could go to war at a moment's notice, and would be ...
— As Seen By Me • Lilian Bell

... cannot agree with Zahn's judgment (Marcellus of Ancyra, p. 235 f.): "Irenaeus is the first ecclesiastical teacher who has grasped the idea of an independent science of Christianity, of a theology which, in spite of its width and magnitude, is a branch of knowledge distinguished from others; and was also the first to mark out the paths of ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack

... every worthy calling demands forms of activity which could not and should not be mechanized. There are emergencies in every form of occupation that call for new adjustments. The ability to make such new adjustments depends upon richness of experience and width of view as well as upon skill ...
— Increasing Efficiency In Business • Walter Dill Scott

... no higher than a man were found to be taller than the great tower of Seville. There can be no doubt that this was the gorge we now call the Grand Canyon. No other answers the description. Cardenas said the width at the top, that is, the "outer" gorge with its broken edge, was three or four leagues or more in an air line.* This is the case at both great bends of the river. The point he reached has usually been put, without definite ...
— The Romance of the Colorado River • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

... paying a special attention to Douglas Falloden's. What a hard and glittering mind the fellow had!—extraordinarily competent and well-trained; extraordinarily lacking, as it seemed to Sorell, in width or pliancy, or humanity. One of the ablest essays sent in, however, was a paper by Falloden on the "Sentimentalisms of Democracy"—in which a reasoned and fierce contempt for the popular voice, and ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... tiny rift which at that distance looks like a wrinkle in the seamed face of an old squaw, but which is probably a huge gash gored into the solid rock for a thousand feet of depth and more than a thousand feet of width. ...
— Roughing it De Luxe • Irvin S. Cobb

... Mr. Dalton had of signing his name. The odd-looking signature is the one affixed to the will. Here you will see that the loops, straight lines, curves and angles are all entirely unlike the original; the width of the lines and shading are different, and the angle at which the letters are set is not the same as ...
— The Bradys Beyond Their Depth - The Great Swamp Mystery • Anonymous

... than soiling her soul with Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans—those lessons in English literature, meant by the authorities to be as innocuous to her as to her sisters, had opened her eyes in a way nothing else could have done to the width of the world and the littleness of Kunitz. With that good teacher, as eager to lead as she to follow, she wandered down the splendid walks of culture, met there the best people of all ages, communed ...
— The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight • Elizabeth von Arnim

... the positions of cupboards. Strong settles and broad chairs stood in irregular places about the floor, which was of the bare earth, grown hard as stone, and now sanded. The chimney nook spanned the width of one end of the room. It was an open ingle with seats in the wall at each end, and the fire on the ground between them. A goat's head and the horns of an ox were the only ornaments of the chimney-breast, which ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... Between the Hamels-Hoofden the width is about a cannon's shot of 2,000 [yards]; the depth 10, 11, 12 fathoms. They are tolerably high points, and well wooded. The west point is an island, inhabited by from 80 to 90 savages, who support themselves by planting maize. The east point is a very large ...
— Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 • Various

... plant owes this width of celebrity to a combination of natural qualities so remarkable as to yield great diversities of good and evil fame. It was first heralded as a medical panacea, "the most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man," and was seldom mentioned, in the sixteenth century, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 • Various

... all kinds to the battle front. They were pulled by gasoline engines. We also saw our first barbed wire entanglements. These were built back of the lines as a protection to the French in case the Germans should break through on that front. They were about twenty-five feet in width and extended north and south as far as the eye could see. Later on we saw barbed wire entanglements as much as 250 feet in width, put up as a barrier to the ...
— In the Flash Ranging Service - Observations of an American Soldier During His Service - With the A.E.F. in France • Edward Alva Trueblood

... neck of land change the commercial routes of the whole world. Such are the Isthmus of Suez, eighty-seven miles wide, through which a canal was cut that saves a sailing distance of 3,700 miles from England to India. Only the Isthmus of Panama, forty-nine miles in width, divides the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean. When the canal across this narrow strip is completed, the sailing distance from New York to San Francisco will be shortened 8,000 miles, the entire ...
— Checking the Waste - A Study in Conservation • Mary Huston Gregory

... he had discovered, they began a fur trade with the Indians who lived there. In June, 1633, they bought from the Indians a strip of land on the river, one Dutch mile in length by one third of a mile in width, and they paid for it with "one piece of duffel [that is, heavy cloth] twenty-seven ells long, six axes, six kettles, eighteen knives, one sword-blade, one pair of shears, some toys and a musket." On this land, which is now in the city of Hartford, the first block-house in ...
— Once Upon A Time In Connecticut • Caroline Clifford Newton



Words linked to "Width" :   broad, wideness, breadth, wide, dimension, beam, broadness, constant-width font, narrow, narrowness



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