fadom

Noun

fathom (plural fathoms)

1. (US, historical) A man's armspan, generally reckoned to be six feet (about 1.8 metres). Later used to measure the depth of water, but now generally replaced by the metre outside American usage.
   • [T]he ſhipmen deemed that they drew neere to ſome countrey: And ſounded, and found it twentie fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they ſounded againe, and found it fifteene fathoms.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 27:27–28, column 2
   1. (US, historical) An internationally standardized version of this unit, the international fathom (= 1.8288 metres = 6 feet).
2. (US) A measure of distance to shore: the nearest point to shore at which the water depth is the value quoted.
   • After we'd rowed for an hour, we found ourselves stranded ten fathoms from shore.
3. (figuratively, in plural) An unspecified depth.
4. (archaic, figuratively, obsolete) Depth of insight; mental reach or scope.
   • Another of his fathome they haue not / To leade their buſineſſe, […]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act...
5. (obsolete) The act of stretching out one's arms away from the sides of the torso so that they make a straight line perpendicular to the body.

See all 14 meanings of fathom