fathom

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“
They cut the wood that they use, from slender wands up to poles four inches through, and from one to two fathoms long (a fathom is a measure of six feet).

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A unit of length equal to 6 feet (1.83 meters), used principally in the measurement and specification of marine depths.
  2. transitive verb To penetrate to the meaning or nature of; comprehend.
  3. transitive verb To determine the depth of; sound.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Also difficult to fathom is the extreme suffering to which Christ voluntarily surrendered. —  The Patriot Ledger Home RSS
  • When the left wing of the media finds her support from middle class women impossible to fathom, there is a very good reason. —  Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy
  • For reasons not hard to fathom, the shola forests did not seem inviting any longer! —  TravelPod.com Recent Updates
  • The reasons for this are not that difficult to fathom, and are closely intertwined with the role of the anarchist monster as the bringer of 'chaos' and 'destruction' in the bourgeois imagination; in reality, the overthrow of bourgeois rule. —  slackbastard
  • The success of "Chasing Cars" was difficult for the band to fathom, as the song wound up spending an astonishing 85 weeks on the UK charts, making it the second longest running song in UK history, behind Frank Sinatra's iconic take on "My Way". —  PopMatters
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

centimeters ·  kilometers ·  cm ·  league ·  meter ·  gallon ·  deg ·  inch ·  mile ·  reef ·  shoal ·  acre

Used in the same contextWord Family

fathom:   fathoms
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English fathme, from Old English fæthm, outstretched arms; see petə- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English and dial. also fadom, faddom; from Middle English fathome, commonly with d, fadome, fademe, usually without the inserted vowel, fadme, fedme (properly a dative and plural form), a measure of length, about 6 feet, also an ell or cubit (Latin ulna), from Anglo-Saxon fæthm, a measure of length, an ell or cubit (cf. gloss, “Cubitum, fæthm betwux elbogan and hondwyrste,” i. e., ‘cubit, the space between elbow and wrist’), also of a longer measure, a fathom (as in an early gloss, “Passus, fæthm vel tuegen stridi,” i. e., ‘pace, a fathom or two strides’ — the L. passus being about 5 feet); orig. the space reached over by the extended arms, fæthm meaning generally the extended arms, the embracing arms, embrace, bosom, grasp, power, an expanse, etc., = Old Saxon fathmos, plural, the extended arms, = Old Dutch vadem, a cubit, fathom, a stretched thread, Dutch vadem, a fathom, = Low German fadem, faem, a cubit, a thread, = Old High German fadam, fadum, Middle High German vadem, vaden, German faden, a thread, G. also (from Low German) a fathom, = Icelandic fadhmr, the arms, the bosom, a fathom, = Sw. famn, the arms, bosom, embrace, = Danish favn, an embrace, a fathom. Prob. connected with Gothic (Moesogothic) fatha = Middle High German vade, a hedge, inclosure.
  2. from Middle English fadomen, fadmen, fathmen, embrace, encompass, from Anglo-Saxon fæthmian, clasp, embrace, encompass, = Dutch vademen, fathom, sound, = Icelandic fadhma, embrace, = Sw. famna, fathom, sound, = Danish favne, clasp, embrace, favne op, sound; from the noun.
 

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/ˈfæðəm/
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