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Hamlet vocabulary
4 nautical terms (boats, equipment, etc.)
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fathom
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synonyms: fæðm, toise ???
tags: [nautical] [unit]
► definition
Definition:a unit equal to about 6 ft (1.8 m), a measure of the outstretched arms
► uses
Uses:
The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fathoms to the sea
And hears it roar beneath.
William Shakespeare. Hamlet.
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In the road ships must ride in 30, 40, or 50 fathom water, not above half a mile from the shore at farthest: and if there are many ships they must ride close one by another. The shore is generally high land and in most places steep too.
William Dampier. A Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699
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All this he seemed to see in the large eyes of his mother and his sister, looking up at him through the green water, hundreds of fathoms down and still sinking.
George Orwell. 1984 (1949)
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He saw the phosphorescence of the Gulf weed in the water as he rowed over the part of the ocean that the fishermen called the great well because there was a sudden deep of seven hundred fathoms where all sorts of fish congregated
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What must have been the astonishment of all, then, when having proceeded a few fathoms from the ship, Mr. Wyatt stood up in the stern-sheets, and coolly demanded of Captain Hardy that the boat should be put back for the purpose of taking in his oblong box!
Edgar Allan Poe. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4: The Oblong Box (1844)
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