What is the meaning of fathoms deep?
1 : a unit of length equal to six feet (1.83 meters) used especially for measuring the depth of water —sometimes used in the singular when qualified by a number five fathom deep.
What does it mean when you can’t fathom something?
understand it thoroughly
To fathom something is to understand it thoroughly, and is usually used in the negative, as in “I can’t fathom why he doesn’t want to go along with us.” To understand something thoroughly is “to get to the bottom of it.”
Does fathom mean comprehend?
Fathom is defined as to understand completely, or to measure the depth of something. An example of fathom is comprehending everything that caused something to happen.
How do you use the word fathom?
Fathom sentence example
- He could not fathom the depth of the ocean.
- She couldn’t fathom the idea.
- I just can’t fathom out why he lied.
- We were pensive as we tried to fathom what was occurring.
- Another part of her couldn’t fathom how a man colder than a sociopath could be working for the side of good.
Why are fathoms used?
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to 6 feet (1.8288 m), used especially for measuring the depth of water. Historically, however, it is the most frequently employed maritime measure of depth in the English-speaking world.
What word class is fathom?
fathom. / (ˈfæðəm) / noun. a unit of length equal to six feet (1.829 metres), used to measure depths of water.
What does fathom a guess mean?
It comes from a sailor’s (old) term for measuring (a fathom is, I think, about 2 metres) the depth of water by finding the bottom with a weight on a rope, so it has a figurative sense of “to get to the bottom” of something (i.e. to understand it fully).
How is a fathom defined and what is it used for?
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to 6 feet (1.8288 m), used especially for measuring the depth of water.
Why do we use fathoms?
What is the synonym of fathom?
understand, comprehend, work out, fathom out, make sense of, grasp, catch, follow, perceive, make out, penetrate, divine, search out, ferret out, puzzle out, take in, assimilate, absorb, get to the bottom of. interpret, decipher, decode, disentangle, untangle, unravel, piece together.
How many fathoms are under the sea?
The mean height of the land is 2250 feet; the mean depth of the whole ocean is 12,480 feet (2080 fathoms).”
Which is the best definition of the word fathom?
Definition of fathom (Entry 1 of 2) 1 : a unit of length equal to six feet (1.83 meters) used especially for measuring the depth of water —sometimes used in the singular when qualified by a number five fathom deep 2 : comprehension the themes display a newer fathom than the technical modernism of the composer’s earlier works — Newsweek
How many fathoms deep is the deep sea?
A fathom is a nautical unit of measurement and is equal to six feet . How many fathoms deep is the ocean? In fact, the “deep sea” begins at 1000 fathoms deep (about 1900 meters or 1.2 miles!). Though the depth of the ocean varies by location, it has an average depth of 3.7 km (2.3 miles) deep.
How big is a fathom in feet and meters?
fath·om | ˈfa-t͟həm . (Entry 1 of 2) 1 : a unit of length equal to six feet (1.83 meters) used especially for measuring the depth of water —sometimes used in the singular when qualified by a number five fathom deep.
How are fathom points used to measure water depth?
Water depth. To measure the depth of shallow waters, boatmen used a sounding line containing fathom points, some marked and others in between, called deeps, unmarked but estimated by the user. Water near the coast and not too deep to be fathomed by a hand sounding line was referred to as in soundings or on soundings.