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/fˈæðəm/ Listen

verb

Fathom v. t. (past & past part. fathomed; pres. part. fathoming)

To encompass with the arms extended or encircling; to measure by throwing the arms about; to span. (Obs.)

To measure by a sounding line; especially, to sound the depth of; to penetrate, measure, and comprehend; to get to the bottom of. "The page of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and commonplace, only because I had not fathomed its deeper import."

noun

Fathom n.

A measure of length, containing six feet; the space to which a man can extend his arms; used chiefly in measuring cables, cordage, and the depth of navigable water by soundings.

The measure or extant of one's capacity; depth, as of intellect; profundity; reach; penetration. (R.) "Another of his fathom they have none To lead their business."

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Etymology of 'Fathom'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fathom" Quotes from Famous Books

... line of rocks running along forty or fifty feet farther out. Some of them seem to be thirty feet out of the water; at one end they touch the cliff, and at the other there is a free passage. The water is very clear, but as far as I can judge I should say there is a depth of a fathom or a fathom and a half between the rocks and the cliff. Certainly a boat could row in to a position underneath where ...

— The Treasure of the Incas • G. A. Henty

... of the immense depths of Divine wisdom, in forbidding us to fathom these depths by telling us that it is insolence to call God to the tribunal of our humble reason, in making it a crime to judge our Master, the theologians only confess the embarrassment in which they find themselves as soon as they have to render account of the conduct of a God, which they ...

— Superstition In All Ages (1732) - Common Sense • Jean Meslier

... his whiskers in peace and to think to his heart's content. By nightfall his face had become an inscrutable mask, and then it was known that the President of Bramble County's Horse-Thief Detective Association was determined to fathom the great problem. Stealthily he went up to the great attic in his home and inspected his "disguises." In some far-off period of his official career he had purchased the most amazing collection of false beards, wigs and garments that any stranded comedian ever disposed of at a sacrifice. He ...

— The Daughter of Anderson Crow • George Barr McCutcheon

... Darwinism—the Huxley of Germany. Like Huxley, Haeckel had at once made the logical application of the Darwinian theory to man himself, and he sought now to trace the exact lineage of the human family as no one had hitherto attempted to fathom it. Utilizing his wide range of zoological and anatomical knowledge, he constructed a hypothetical tree of descent—or, if you prefer, ascent—from the root in a protozoon to the topmost twig or most recent offshoot, man. ...

— A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5) - Aspects Of Recent Science • Henry Smith Williams

... we hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'-west, boys, We hove our ship to, for to strike soundings clear; We got soundings in ninety-five fathom, and boldly Up the channel of old England our course ...

— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood

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