n. [ OE. line, AS. līne cable, hawser, prob. from L. linea a linen thread, string, line, fr. linum flax, thread, linen, cable; but the English word was influenced by F. ligne line, from the same L. word linea. See Linen. ] 1. A linen thread or string; a slender, strong cord; also, a cord of any thickness; a rope; a hawser; as, a fishing line; a line for snaring birds; a clothesline; a towline. [ 1913 Webster ]

Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A more or less threadlike mark of pen, pencil, or graver; any long mark; as, a chalk line. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The course followed by anything in motion; hence, a road or route; as, the arrow descended in a curved line; the place is remote from lines of travel. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Direction; as, the line of sight or vision. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A row of letters, words, etc., written or printed; esp., a row of words extending across a page or column. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A short letter; a note; as, a line from a friend. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Poet.) A verse, or the words which form a certain number of feet, according to the measure. [ 1913 Webster ]

In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa. Broome. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or policy; method of argument; department of industry, trade, or intellectual activity. [ 1913 Webster ]

He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is not the line of a first-rate man. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Math.) That which has length, but not breadth or thickness. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory; boundary; contour; outline. [ 1913 Webster ]

Eden stretched her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. A threadlike crease marking the face or the hand; hence, characteristic mark. [ 1913 Webster ]

Though on his brow were graven lines austere. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

He tipples palmistry, and dines
On all her fortune-telling lines. Cleveland. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. Lineament; feature; figure. “The lines of my boy's face.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. A straight row; a continued series or rank; as, a line of houses, or of soldiers; a line of barriers. [ 1913 Webster ]

Unite thy forces and attack their lines. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

14. A series or succession of ancestors or descendants of a given person; a family or race; as, the ascending or descending line; the line of descent; the male line; a line of kings. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of his lineage am I, and his offspring
By very line, as of the stock real. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

15. A connected series of public conveyances, and hence, an established arrangement for forwarding merchandise, etc.; as, a line of stages; an express line. [ 1913 Webster ]

16. (Geog.) (a) A circle of latitude or of longitude, as represented on a map. (b) The equator; -- usually called the line, or equinoctial line; as, to cross the line. [ 1913 Webster ]

17. A long tape, or a narrow ribbon of steel, etc., marked with subdivisions, as feet and inches, for measuring; a tapeline. [ 1913 Webster ]

18. (Script.) (a) A measuring line or cord. [ 1913 Webster ]

He marketh it out with a line. Is. xliv. 13.

(b) That which was measured by a line, as a field or any piece of land set apart; hence, allotted place of abode. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Ps. xvi. 6.

(c) Instruction; doctrine. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their line is gone out through all the earth. Ps. xix. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

19. (Mach.) The proper relative position or adjustment of parts, not as to design or proportion, but with reference to smooth working; as, the engine is in line or out of line. [ 1913 Webster ]

20. The track and roadbed of a railway; railroad. [ 1913 Webster ]

21. (Mil.) (a) A row of men who are abreast of one another, whether side by side or some distance apart; -- opposed to column. (b) The regular infantry of an army, as distinguished from militia, guards, volunteer corps, cavalry, artillery, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

22. (Fort.) (a) A trench or rampart. (b) pl. Dispositions made to cover extended positions, and presenting a front in but one direction to an enemy. [ 1913 Webster ]

23. pl. (Shipbuilding) Form of a vessel as shown by the outlines of vertical, horizontal, and oblique sections. [ 1913 Webster ]

24. (Mus.) One of the straight horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are placed. [ 1913 Webster ]

25. (Stock Exchange) A number of shares taken by a jobber. [ 1913 Webster ]

26. (Trade) A series of various qualities and values of the same general class of articles; as, a full line of hosiery; a line of merinos, etc. McElrath. [ 1913 Webster ]

27. The wire connecting one telegraphic station with another, or the whole of a system of telegraph wires under one management and name. [ 1913 Webster ]

28. pl. The reins with which a horse is guided by his driver. [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

29. A measure of length; one twelfth of an inch. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hard lines, hard lot. C. Kingsley. [ See Def. 18. ] --
Line breeding (Stockbreeding), breeding by a certain family line of descent, especially in the selection of the dam or mother. --
Line conch (Zool.), a spiral marine shell (Fasciolaria distans), of Florida and the West Indies. It is marked by narrow, dark, revolving lines. --
Line engraving. (a) Engraving in which the effects are produced by lines of different width and closeness, cut with the burin upon copper or similar material; also, a plate so engraved. (b) A picture produced by printing from such an engraving. --
Line of battle. (a) (Mil. Tactics) The position of troops drawn up in their usual order without any determined maneuver. (b) (Naval) The line or arrangement formed by vessels of war in an engagement. --
Line of battle ship. See Ship of the line, below. --
Line of beauty (Fine Arts), an abstract line supposed to be beautiful in itself and absolutely; -- differently represented by different authors, often as a kind of elongated S (like the one drawn by Hogarth). --
Line of centers. (Mach.) (a) A line joining two centers, or fulcra, as of wheels or levers. (b) A line which determines a dead center. See Dead center, under Dead. --
Line of dip (Geol.), a line in the plane of a stratum, or part of a stratum, perpendicular to its intersection with a horizontal plane; the line of greatest inclination of a stratum to the horizon. --
Line of fire (Mil.), the direction of fire. --
Line of force (Physics), any line in a space in which forces are acting, so drawn that at every point of the line its tangent is the direction of the resultant of all the forces. It cuts at right angles every equipotential surface which it meets. Specifically (Magnetism), a line in proximity to a magnet so drawn that any point in it is tangential with the direction of a short compass needle held at that point. Faraday. --
Line of life (Palmistry), a line on the inside of the hand, curving about the base of the thumb, supposed to indicate, by its form or position, the length of a person's life. --
Line of lines. See Gunter's line. --
Line of march. (Mil.) (a) Arrangement of troops for marching. (b) Course or direction taken by an army or body of troops in marching. --
Line of operations, that portion of a theater of war which an army passes over in attaining its object. H. W. Halleck. --
Line of sight (Firearms), the line which passes through the front and rear sight, at any elevation, when they are sighted at an object. --
Line tub (Naut.), a tub in which the line carried by a whaleboat is coiled. --
Mason and Dixon's line,
Mason-Dixon line, the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, as run before the Revolution (1764-1767) by two English astronomers named Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. In an extended sense, the line between the free and the slave States; as, below the Mason-Dixon line, i.e. in the South. --
On the line, (a) on a level with the eye of the spectator; -- said of a picture, as hung in an exhibition of pictures. (b) at risk (dependent upon success) in a contest or enterprise; as, the survival of the company is on the line in this project. --
Right line, a straight line; the shortest line that can be drawn between two points. --
Ship of the line, formerly, a ship of war large enough to have a place in the line of battle; a vessel superior to a frigate; usually, a seventy-four, or three-decker; -- called also line of battle ship or battleship. Totten. --
To cross the line, to cross the equator, as a vessel at sea. --
To give a person line, to allow him more or less liberty until it is convenient to stop or check him, like a hooked fish that swims away with the line. --
Water line (Shipbuilding), the outline of a horizontal section of a vessel, as when floating in the water. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Lined p. pr. & vb. n. Lining. ] [ See Line flax. ] 1. To cover the inner surface of; as, to line a cloak with silk or fur; to line a box with paper or tin. [ 1913 Webster ]

The inside lined with rich carnation silk. W. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To put something in the inside of; to fill; to supply, as a purse with money. [ 1913 Webster ]

The charge amounteth very high for any one man's purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto. Carew. [ 1913 Webster ]

Till coffee has her stomach lined. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To place persons or things along the side of for security or defense; to strengthen by adding anything; to fortify; as, to line works with soldiers. [ 1913 Webster ]

Line and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To impregnate; -- applied to brute animals. Creech. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lined gold, gold foil having a lining of another metal. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. lin. See Linen. ] 1. Flax; linen. [ Obs. ] “Garments made of line.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The longer and finer fiber of flax. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To mark with a line or lines; to cover with lines; as, to line a copy book. [ 1913 Webster ]

He had a healthy color in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety. Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To represent by lines; to delineate; to portray. [ R. ] “Pictures fairest lined.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To read or repeat line by line; as, to line out a hymn. [ 1913 Webster ]

This custom of reading or lining, or, as it was frequently called “deaconing” the hymn or psalm in the churches, was brought about partly from necessity. N. D. Gould. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To form into a line; to align; as, to line troops. [ 1913 Webster ]

To line bees, to track wild bees to their nest by following their line of flight. --
To line up (Mach.), to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running. See 3d Line, 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. linage, F. lignage, fr. L. linea line. See 3d Line. ] Descent in a line from a common progenitor; progeny; race; descending line of offspring or ascending line of parentage. [ 1913 Webster ]

Both the lineage and the certain sire
From which I sprung, from me are hidden yet. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. linealis belonging to a line, fr. linea line: cf. F. linéal. See 3d Line. ] 1. Descending in a direct line from an ancestor; hereditary; derived from ancestors; -- opposed to collateral; as, a lineal descent or a lineal descendant. [ 1913 Webster ]

The prime and ancient right of lineal succession. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inheriting by direct descent; having the right by direct descent to succeed (to). [ 1913 Webster ]

For only you are lineal to the throne. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Composed of lines; delineated; as, lineal designs. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. In the direction of a line; of or pertaining to a line; measured on, or ascertained by, a line; linear; as, lineal magnitude. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lineal measure, the measure of length; -- usually written linear measure. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being lineal. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a lineal manner; as, the prince is lineally descended from the Conqueror. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. lineamentum, fr. linea line: cf. F. linéament. See 3d Line. ] One of the outlines, exterior features, or distinctive marks, of a body or figure, particularly of the face; feature; form; mark; -- usually in the plural. “The lineaments of the body.” Locke. “Lineaments in the character.” Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

Man he seems
In all his lineaments. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. linearis, linearius, fr. linea line: cf. F. linéaire. See 3d Line. ] 1. Of or pertaining to a line; consisting of lines; in a straight direction; lineal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) Like a line; narrow; of the same breadth throughout, except at the extremities; as, a linear leaf. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Thinking in a step-by-step analytical and logical fashion; contrasted with holistic, i.e. thinking in terms of complex interrelated patterns; as, linear thinkers. [ PJC ]

Linear thinkers concluded that by taking the world apart, the actions of people were more predictable and controllable. David Morris (Conference presentation, Fairfield University, October 31, 1997)

Linear differential equation (Math.), an equation which is of the first degree, when the expression which is equated to zero is regarded as a function of the dependent variable and its differential coefficients. --
Linear equation (Math.), an equation of the first degree between two variables; -- so called because every such equation may be considered as representing a right line. --
Linear measure, the measurement of length. --
Linear numbers (Math.), such numbers as have relation to length only: such is a number which represents one side of a plane figure. If the plane figure is square, the linear figure is called a root. --
Linear problem (Geom.), a problem which may be solved geometrically by the use of right lines alone. --
Linear transformation (Alg.), a change of variables where each variable is replaced by a function of the first degree in the new variable. [ 1913 Webster ]