See Also: in-depth(dictionary)
depth(dictionary)
Depth(medicine)
In Depth(money)
depth(dictionary)
Depth charge(recipes)
focal depth(medicine)
Depth capture(health)
depth charge(encyclopedia)
depth charge(dictionary)

depth (iou)



depth noun. LME.
[from DEEP adjective + -TH1, after long: length etc. Largely superseding earlier DEEPNESS.]
I.
Extent or distance from the top downwards, from the surface or edge inwards or from front to back; a particular measurement of this. LME.
B. Googe Trenches of a cubite in depth. J. Updike They swim in the icy water..at a depth no greater than their height.
b. Military. The distance from front to rear of a body of soldiers etc., as measured by the number of ranks. M17.
Intensity or profundity of a feeling, moral quality, or state. LME.
J. Wesley The Depth of sympathetic Woe!
The quality of having considerable extension downwards, inwards, or from front to back. E16.
Bible (Tyndale): Matthew 13:5 Because it had no depth of earth.
a. Abstruseness of (subjects of) thought; complexity. L16.
C. Marlowe Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess.
b. Intellectual penetration, sagacity, insight. E17.
T. Hearne A man of extraordinary Depth. A. S. Byatt Boys before the age of self-consciousness..could give..depths they were unconscious of to lines they didn't understand.
Intensity of physical qualities or conditions, as silence, darkness, colour, etc. E17.
Dryden All seeking the noise in the depth of silence. D. Lessing Her smart new coat flaring jade, emerald, dark green, as she moved through varying depths of light.
II.
A deep body of water; a deep part of the sea, or of any body of water. Usu. in pl. LME.
E. Langley The blue lake chanted in its blue and white depths. C. Sagan Organisms now live from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest portions of the abyssal depths.
b. = DEEP noun 3. LME-E17.
A deep, remote, or inmost part (of). Freq. in pl. LME.
Pope Some safer world, in depth of woods embrac'd. V. Woolf How did she manage these things in the depths of the country?
fig. A deep, mysterious, unfathomable, etc., region of or of thought, feeling, character, etc. Freq. in pl. LME.
Bible (AV): Psalms 130:1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. E. Waugh Depths of confusion you didn't know existed. B. Bainbridge Nina wasn't the sort to like lovable men. Perhaps Douglas had hidden depths.
A deep place in the earth etc.; the lowest part of a pit, cavity, etc. Formerly also, a valley. E16.
Pope A monster, horrible and fell, Begot by furies in the depths of hell. J. B. Priestley Moaning for a doctor from the depths of the armchair into which he'd collapsed.
A vast or unfathomable space (of). Usu. in pl. E17.
Longfellow Measureless depths of air around.
The deepest, harshest, or most intense period. E17.
E. Bolton Though it were the depth of Winter. R. Brooke Fish (fly-replete, in depth of June.. ).
Phrases: defence in depth: see DEFENCE noun 3. depth of field: see FIELD noun. depth of focus: see FOCUS noun. in depth profound(ly), comprehensive(ly); penetrating(ly). out of one's depth in water too deep to stand in; fig. beyond one's capacities or understanding. rapture of the depths, raptures of the depths: see RAPTURE noun.
Comb.: depth-bomb, depth-charge a bomb that explodes under water at a pre-set depth, used for attacking a submerged submarine etc.; depth-finder a device for measuring the depth of the sea etc., esp. using echo-sounding; depth psychology psychology seeking to explain behaviour in terms of the unconscious; psychoanalysis intended to reveal hidden motives etc.; depth-recorder a recording depth-finder.
depthen verb trans. (rare) = DEEPEN 1 L16.
depthless adjective (a) unfathomable; abyssal; (b) shallow, superficial: E17.