fathom

noun

1. 1

   historicalA 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.

   Full fadom fiue thy Father lies, Of his bones are Corrall made: Those are pearles that were his eies, Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a Sea-change Into someting rich, & strange

   And then they told me that a good many years ago, when the speakers were boys, some Wokan men who were out fishing met these lost people in the sea, and spoke to them; and the chief gave the Wokan men a hundred fathoms of cloth to bring to the men of Wanumbai, to show that they were alive and would soon come back to them[.]

2. 2

   historicalA 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. An internationally standardized version of this unit, the international fathom (= 1.8288 metres = 6 feet).

3. 3

   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.

   At fifty fathoms, the waters of the Southern Ocean are dark blue.

4. 4

   figurativeAn unspecified depth.

5. 5

   archaicDepth of insight; mental reach or scope.

   Another of his fathome they haue not / To leade their buſineſſe, […]

6. 6

   obsoleteThe 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.

7. 7

   obsoleteSomeone or something that is embraced.

   Thy Bride, thy choice, thy vvife, / She that is novv thy fadom, […] Kneele at thy feete, obay in euerie thing, / So euerie Father is a priuate King.

8. 8

   figurativeControl, grasp.

   So; novv knovv I vvhere I am, me thinkes already / I graſpe beſt part of the Autumnian bleſſing / In my contentious fadome, […]

   Yes: / you have blovvne his ſvvolne pride to that vaſtnes, / as he beleeves the earth is in his fadom, / this makes him qute forget his humble Being: […]

verb

1. 1

   figurativeTo measure the depth of (water); to take a sounding of; to sound.

   It is very steep, and on its summit is a lake of dark water, so deep that it cannot be fathomed.

2. 2

   archaicTo encircle (someone or something) with outstretched arms; specifically, to measure the circumference or (rare) length of something.

3. 3

   figurativeOften followed by out: to deeply understand (someone or something); to get to the bottom of.

   I can’t for the life of me fathom what this means.

   Otamendi’s selection ahead of Vincent Kompany was difficult to fathom and, apart from Fernandinho, City’s line-up was otherwise filled with attacking players.

4. 4

   obsoleteTo embrace (someone or something).

5. 5

   To measure a depth; to sound.

6. 6

   figurativeTo conduct an examination or inquiry; to investigate.

Forms

plural

fathoms

past tense

fathomed

past participle

fathomed

present participle

fathoming

third person singular

fathoms