distance

Less common meanings

9. 9
   emotional gapnounfigurativelycountable or uncountable

   The state of people not being close or friendly, or no longer being so; estrangement.

   A growing distance had crept into their marriage over the years.

   The brothers never spoke of the distance that had divided them.

   Similaralienation

   Oppositecloseness, intimacy

   Note

   Estrangement often has a temperature. In Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint a woman sought by suitors of the richest coat "kept cold distance," and Milton pairs distance and distaste in Paradise Lost. The word describes a relation between people. When the coldness is one person's manner, the word means aloofness instead. Alienation is the closest synonym. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • William Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. en.wikipedia.org
   • The poem describes a woman pursued by richly distinguished suitors who initially kept her distance; the quoted words are exact. gutenberg.org
   • John Milton wrote Paradise Lost. en.wikipedia.org
   • Paradise Lost places distance and distaste together in its narrator's account of Heaven's estrangement from humanity. en.wikisource.org
10. 10
    cold mannernounfigurativelycountable or uncountable

    Excessive reserve or unfriendliness in a person's manner, amounting to aloofness or coldness toward others.

    His sudden distance puzzled his colleagues, who had always known him as warm and approachable.

    She treated the newcomers with a chilly distance that made any real conversation difficult.

    Similaraloofness, coldness, unfriendliness, standoffishness

    Oppositewarmth, friendliness, approachability, openness

11. 11
    time gapnouncountable or uncountable

    An interval or length of time separating two events.

    Even at a distance of half a century, the veterans could recall every detail of that winter.

    At this distance of years, the finer details have faded from memory.

    UsageMostly in set frames: at this distance of time, at a distance of thirty years.

    Similarinterval, span, gap, lapse, stretch

    Note

    Here time borrows the vocabulary of space, and Middle English already allowed it. John Playfair (1795) has Euclid still leading at the distance of two thousand years. Matthew Prior's ten years distance between two of his writings and Samuel Foote's dosing order, at two hours' distance, show the measured form.

12. 12
    to the endnounfigurativelyusually singular

    The whole length of an effort or contest, as in go the distance, to keep going to the end (in boxing, to last every scheduled round).

    Few startups have the funding to go the distance.

    He proved he could go the distance when others gave up early.

13. 13
    make less closeverbfigurativelytransitive

    To make someone less close to another person or to a group, emotionally or socially.

    Constant criticism can distance a child from a parent.

    His secrecy distanced him from those he most needed.

    Similaralienate, estrange, isolate, divide

    Oppositereconcile, unite

14. 14
    pull aheadverbtransitive

    To get far ahead of others, in a race or in any kind of competition; to outstrip.

    By the third lap, the champion had distanced her closest challengers.

    Sprinters who distance the pack early often fade before the finish.

15. 15
    make seem farverbtransitive

    To cause a place, thing, or idea to seem far off, or figuratively unfamiliar.

    The film's grainy texture distances its events, making them feel like remote history.

    Wide-angle lenses distance the background, so the mountains look farther away than they are.

    Note

    This is the verb of painters and their critics. Roger de Piles's observations on painting, in their English of 1695, consider the objection that black distances the object, pushing it back while light brings the near side forward. James Russell Lowell (1854) gives the job to the Italian air, which distances far mountains with a bloom like that on unplucked grapes. It is the active partner of the painter's distance. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Roger de Piles's observations on painting appeared in English in 1695. en.wiktionary.org
    • De Piles presents this as a hypothetical objection, then distinguishes the shading of a rounded surface from distance between separate objects. gutenberg.org
    • The Lowell passage dates to 1854. en.wiktionary.org
    • Lowell describes Italian air distancing mountains with a bloom resembling that on unplucked grapes. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    nounobsoletecountable

    The amount by which one musical sound is higher or lower than another.

    Note

    Music's old word for what is now called an interval. Thomas More's Utopia, in Ralph Robinson's English of 1551, speaks of the concordant and discordant distances of sounds and tunes, meaning consonant and dissonant gaps between pitches.

17. 17
    nounobsoletefigurativelycountable

    A disagreement or dispute between people; also, an estrangement.

    Similarquarrel

    Note

    The quarrelling sense is among the oldest the word has: Middle English distance already meant "disagreement, dispute" and "hostility" alongside "space between two points." It is now obsolete, so a modern reader meeting it in older prose should hear a quarrel or a falling-out, not a gap in space. Today quarrel names the dispute, and the estrangement sense carries the coldness between people.

18. 18
    nounobsoletefigurativelycountable or uncountable

    The rank or social standing to which an important person belongs.

    I am not ſatisfied in vvhat diſtance properly to place theſe perſons. Some, perchance, vvill account it too high, to rank them amongſt Martyrs; and ſurely, I conceive it too lovv, to eſteem them but bare Confeſſours.

    1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain

    Note

    An obsolete social sense that modern readers easily mistake for aloofness. John Donne, addressing the Countess of Huntington, speaks of those who lie without your distance, meaning outside her rank. Thomas Fuller is unsure in what distance to place certain persons: some would think ranking them among martyrs too high, and he thinks calling them mere confessors too low. Read distance as rank or station in older writing. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Distance has an obsolete sense referring to an important person's rank or station. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Donne addresses the Countess of Huntington and uses 'without your distance' to describe people outside her rank. en.wiktionary.org
    • Thomas Fuller uses distance for classification or rank, hesitating between martyrs and confessors. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    noun

    In the phrase 'by a distance', a gap of more than 30 lengths between two horses finishing a race, used to describe a wide margin of victory.
20. 20
    noun

    The greatest space between a boxer and their opponent within which the boxer can still punch effectively.
21. 21
    noun

    The space between a fencer and their opponent, which the fencer tries to control in order to gain an advantage.
22. 22
    noun

    The amount of space between soldiers or riders in a rank, or between the ranks themselves.
23. 23
    noun

    On a racecourse, the point 240 yards from the winning post, once marking qualification for a later heat.
24. 24
    nounobsolete

    The measurement of an object along its longest side.
25. 25
    nounobsolete

    The respectful reserve owed to someone of higher rank, often with to or towards, and so formal politeness.

    [T]hough you ſee / The King is kind, I hope your modeſty / VVill knovv, vvhat diſtance to the Crovvn is due.

    1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour
26. 26
    verbarchaicUS

    Of a racehorse, to finish a set margin ahead of another horse, or to get it disqualified by finishing that far in front.
27. 27
    verbobsolete

    To go the full way to a place or goal.

    The ſunne and all the ſtarres that do appear / She [Psyche] feels them in herſelf, can diſtance all, / For ſhe is at each one purely preſentiall.

    1642, H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΑ [Psychathanasia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul”
28. 28
    verbobsolete

    To move away from and leave behind a place.

    [W]e heard the joyous voices sound louder and freer as they distanced the solemn precincts, scattering frolic and music through the town as they separated to their different homes.

    1873, [Elizabeth Charles], Against the Stream
29. 29
    verbobsolete

    To show or work out how far away a place is.
30. 30
    verbobsolete

    To arrange two or more things with equal gaps between them.

    In the deſign of a Colonnade, or ſingle Columns, the Inter-columns are tvvo diameters, as in the Portico of St. Maria Rotunda at Rome; and this manner of diſtancing the Columns is, by Vitruvius, call'd Syſtylos.

    1715, Giacomo Leoni, “Of the Corinthian Order”