Talk:line

Work to do
line dancing comments removed from main article and placed here: cleaned up this talk page; moved definitions where appropriate --Stranger 03:44, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
 * 1) rfc note: needs (non-obsolete) defs from webster including & translations tidying
 * 2) does the transitive verb have lining
 * 3) this is the earliest sense: rope, cord, string
 * 4) Lots more info to be gleaned from Webster:
 * 5) *Right line a picture, as hung in an exhibition of pictures. Right line, a straight line; the shortest line that can be drawn between two points.

Senses still mising
I have overhauled this entry, ordering senses and sorting subsenses. I then compared our entry to the entry for "line" in the Random House and Merriam-Webster dictionaries (see my notes). They list numerous redundant senses we do not, but they also list these important senses which we lack: I also note that neither dictionary has our sense "impregnate". — Beobach 17:45, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) (RH, noun) "a small quantity of cocaine" (the sense is in fact broader than that, including other powder drugs)
 * 2) (RH & MW, verb) form a line along (example: "the road is lined with on-lookers" or "on-lookers lined the road")
 * 3) (MW, noun) plural: a certificate of marriage
 * 4) (MW, noun) measure of the size of font (type)
 * 5) (RH, noun and verb, second etymology) a layer of glue; to reinforce with glue


 * You've done a decent expansion here IMO. I merged two of the etymologies, and then added a third to cover the "impregnate" (actually "copulate with") sense, with citations. < class="latinx" >Ƿidsiþ 15:39, 5 January 2011 (UTC)


 * There's also the term when a man describes a woman's body "She had lines like a torpedo-boat." (from "Our Mr. Wrenn") or "Check out the lines on her!" Soapyroad 00:47, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

missing defn
We're missing a definition to match with "cross the line" e.g. in the quote "the boss made it clear early where the line was, and what the consequences would be of crossing it" --Girlnotboy 21:19, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

RFV: senses 'tapeline' and 'impregnate'
I have overhauled our entry on line, grouping and checking the definitions. We lack a handful of senses, and we list a handful that other dictionaries don't, but most of those are familiar to me (e.g. the "number of shares taken by a jobber") or straightforward to cite (e.g. that "line" is used to mean "line segment"). However, I haven't found evidence of these two senses: The verb is dubious. The noun may (only) be hard to cite because line is a very common word, and it isn't clear to me what sense is supported by the uses of "steel line" (and similar) I find. — Beobach 18:26, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Noun:
 * 2) A long tape, or a narrow ribbon of steel, etc., marked with subdivisions, as feet and inches, for measuring; a tapeline.
 * 3) Verb:
 * 4) (transitive, obsolete) To impregnate (applied to brute animals). — Creech.


 * Widsith provided two cites of the verb sense; I have provided a third. I have removed the noun sense as RFV-failed. - -sche (discuss) 21:48, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

RFC discussion: May 2007–December 2010
This monster of a word has 42 definitions. Surely some of them can be taken together no? Anyway, it needs some love. H. (talk) 16:01, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I've made some progress. I've made this a project of mine (but obviously, any help is welcome), I'll try to clean it up and group the ones that are related but cannot be combined. &mdash; Beobach972 15:24, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Why are the links in the definitions showing up in a different color on this page? --EncycloPetey 15:54, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you're talking about. The request-for-date template has some yellow text. For a while, links on this page to previously-visited pages mysteriously turned from blue to black instead of purple. Is that it? &mdash; Beobach972 14:42, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Part-serious, part-sarcastic aside: wait till we've finished working on "set". That has literally hundreds of separate senses. &mdash; Paul G 12:23, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Do you mean that hundreds of senses need to be added? I see only 40 or so senses (at most) on the page. &mdash; Beobach972 20:17, 19 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I have added as the wording of senses still needs work. DCDuring TALK  16:04, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Cleaned up. — Beobach 21:22, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Missing computing/electronics sense
It's part of a microchip, I think, possibly a kind of wire: e.g. one can talk about an "IRQ line", or "when the READY line is high". We have a sense for telecommunication wires but I think this is different. Equinox ◑ 11:24, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

bring into line
Is bring into line an idiom? --Backinstadiums (talk) 11:31, 20 March 2020 (UTC)


 * ✅ Equinox ◑ 12:27, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

meaning in K-POP?
maknae line, hyung line, liner (Category:en:Idol fandom) —Suzukaze-c (talk) 00:06, 11 May 2021 (UTC)