fathom

Less common meanings

4. 4
   great depthnounfigurativelycountableplural

   A depth of no particular measure, used chiefly in the plural and in a figurative way.

   Beneath his calm smile lay fathoms of sadness that even his closest friends never saw.

   Beneath his easy jokes lay fathoms of grief that no one at the office suspected.

   UsagePatterns include fathoms of grief and fathoms deep.

   Similardepth

5. 5
   nounUScountable

   A way of stating distance from shore by water depth: the point nearest the shore at which the water is as deep as the number quoted.

   At fifty fathoms, the waters of the Southern Ocean are dark blue.

   1983, Richard Ellis, “The Predators”

   After we'd rowed for an hour, we found ourselves stranded ten fathoms from shore.

   Note

   The number here is a depth even though the phrase sounds like a distance: ten fathoms from shore names the nearest point where the water is ten fathoms deep, not a stretch of sea sixty feet wide. Off a steep coast that point may be a short row from the beach; over a gently shelving bottom it can lie far out. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • In this nautical sense, ten fathoms from shore identifies the nearest point with that water depth, rather than a horizontal distance. en.wiktionary.org
   • Ten fathoms equals sixty feet, calculated from six feet per fathom. repository.library.noaa.gov
   • A given depth can occur close to shore on a steep bottom and farther offshore on a gentle bottom; this follows geometrically from the cited contour-spacing explanation. repository.library.noaa.gov
6. 6
   nounobsoletefiguratively

   Depth of insight; the reach or scope of a person's mind.

   Note

   The measure was turned on the mind: a person's fathom was how deep their understanding could reach. In Othello, Venice has no other man "of his fathom" to lead its business, meaning no one of his capacity. The noun is archaic at best and would sound deliberately old today; the idea lives on in the verb of understanding. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The noun acquired a figurative meaning referring to depth of understanding or mental capacity. en.wiktionary.org
   • In Othello, Act 1, Scene 1, Iago says that the Venetian state has no other man 'of his fathom' to lead its business, referring to Othello. folgerdigitaltexts.org
   • The phrase refers to Othello's capacity. shakespeare-navigators.ewu.edu
   • The verb fathom has a figurative meaning of understanding. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   nounobsoletefiguratively

   A firm hold or control over someone or something.

   Note

   This figurative hold is as old as the word: Old English fæþm covered control and power as well as the embrace. Early seventeenth-century playwrights still used it, in the phrase in someone's fathom. Middleton's Michaelmas Term has "my contentious fadome," and in Fletcher and Massinger's The Prophetess a man swollen with pride "beleeves the earth is in his fadom." Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • The figurative control sense already existed in Old English fæþm alongside the embrace sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • Old English fæþm meant control and power. en.wiktionary.org
   • Early seventeenth-century playwrights used the figurative possessive construction. en.wiktionary.org
   • Michaelmas Term is Middleton's play and contains the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Prophetess was written by Fletcher and Massinger. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Prophetess describes a proud man as believing that the earth is in his fathom, using the quoted spelling. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   measure with armsverbobsoletetransitive

   To encircle someone or something with outstretched arms, in particular so as to measure its circumference or, rarely, its length.

   Note

   Arms opened around a tree trunk or a post do two things at once, hug it and gauge it, and this verb holds both: to encircle with outstretched arms, and so to measure the girth. The later verbs of sounding and understanding grow from the same root, Old English fæþm, "outstretched arms." The sense is archaic or obsolete now.

9. 9
   nounobsolete

   The act of stretching one's arms out from the sides of the body so that they form a straight line at right angles to it.

   Note

   Behind every fathom of rope or water stands this posture: arms stretched straight out from the sides, the body making a cross. As a name for the act itself the word is obsolete, and the measurement the gesture produced, the six-foot unit, has long outlived it. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • The fathom measurement originated in the span of outstretched arms. en.wikipedia.org
   • Fathom formerly named the act of stretching the arms out sideways; this sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
   • A fathom is a six-foot unit. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    nounobsolete

    Someone or something held in an embrace.

    Note

    The word moves here from the embrace to the person held in it. In Thomas Dekker's Satiromastix (1601) a bridegroom is reminded that his bride is "she that is now thy fadom," the one his arms now hold, fadom being an older spelling. The sense is obsolete, and a modern reader would need the context to see it. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Fathom can denote the person held in an embrace. en.wiktionary.org
    • Thomas Dekker wrote Satiromastix. gutenberg.org
    • The quoted words describe the bride to her bridegroom; the King speaks them to Sir Walter Terrill. gutenberg.org
    • Fadom is an older spelling of fathom. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To hold someone or something closely in one's arms.

    Note

    Modern readers hear the verb of understanding in fathom someone, so this obsolete sense needs the arms in plain view to be read rightly: she fathomed him in her arms. It keeps the word closest to its Germanic root, a noun for outstretched arms and the embrace they make. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Fathom has an obsolete sense meaning to embrace someone or something; the example illustrates that sense. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Germanic ancestral noun meant outstretched arms and embrace. en.wiktionary.org