Battleship

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Line \Line\, n. [OE. line, AS. l[imac]ne 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.
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              Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls. --Piers
                                                    Plowman.
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     2. A more or less threadlike mark of pen, pencil, or graver;
        any long mark; as, a chalk line.
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     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.
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     4. Direction; as, the line of sight or vision.
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     5. A row of letters, words, etc., written or printed; esp., a
        row of words extending across a page or column.
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     6. A short letter; a note; as, a line from a friend.
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     7. (Poet.) A verse, or the words which form a certain number
        of feet, according to the measure.
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              In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa.
                                                    --Broome.
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     8. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or policy; method
        of argument; department of industry, trade, or
        intellectual activity.
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              He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is
              not the line of a first-rate man.     --Coleridge.
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     9. (Math.) That which has length, but not breadth or
        thickness.
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     10. The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory;
         boundary; contour; outline.
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               Eden stretched her line
               From Auran eastward to the royal towers
               Of great Seleucia.                   --Milton.
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     11. A threadlike crease marking the face or the hand; hence,
         characteristic mark.
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               Though on his brow were graven lines austere.
                                                    --Byron.
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               He tipples palmistry, and dines
               On all her fortune-telling lines.    --Cleveland.
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     12. Lineament; feature; figure. "The lines of my boy's face."
         --Shak.
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     13. A straight row; a continued series or rank; as, a line of
         houses, or of soldiers; a line of barriers.
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               Unite thy forces and attack their lines. --Dryden.
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     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.
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               Of his lineage am I, and his offspring
               By very line, as of the stock real.  --Chaucer.
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     15. A connected series of public conveyances, and hence, an
         established arrangement for forwarding merchandise, etc.;
         as, a line of stages; an express line.
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     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.
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     17. A long tape, or a narrow ribbon of steel, etc., marked
         with subdivisions, as feet and inches, for measuring; a
         tapeline.
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     18. (Script.)
         (a) A measuring line or cord.
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                   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.
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                   The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant
                   places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. --Ps.
                                                    xvi. 6.
         (c) Instruction; doctrine.
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                   Their line is gone out through all the earth.
                                                    --Ps. xix. 4.
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     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.
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     20. The track and roadbed of a railway; railroad.
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     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.
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     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.
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     23. pl. (Shipbuilding) Form of a vessel as shown by the
         outlines of vertical, horizontal, and oblique sections.
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     24. (Mus.) One of the straight horizontal and parallel
         prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are
         placed.
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     25. (Stock Exchange) A number of shares taken by a jobber.
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     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.
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     27. The wire connecting one telegraphic station with another,
         or the whole of a system of telegraph wires under one
         management and name.
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     28. pl. The reins with which a horse is guided by his driver.
         [U. S.]
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     29. A measure of length; one twelfth of an inch.
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     {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.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  battleship \bat"tle*ship`\ (Nav.) [shortened from line-of-battle
     ship, i.e. the most heavily armored ship suited to be in the
     front line of a naval battle.]
     An armor-plated warship built of steel and heavily armed,
     generally having over ten thousand tons displacement, and
     intended to be fit to combat the heaviest enemy ships in line
     of battle; the most heavily armed and armored class of
     warship at any given time.
     [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  battleship
       n : large and heavily armoured warship [syn: {battlewagon}]