▪ I. mile, n.1
(maɪl)
Forms: 1 m{iacu}l, 3–7 myle, 4–6 myl, 5 Sc. myill, 5–6 mylle, 7 mille.
[OE. m{iacu}l fem. = MDu. mîle (Du. mijl), OHG. mîla, mîlla (MHG. mîle, mod.G. meile), ON. m{iacu}la (prob. from OE.; Sw., Da. mil):—WGer. *mîlja, a. L. mīlia, millia, pl. of mīle, mille thousand. In the Rom. langs. the L. sing. is represented by F. mille, It. miglio masc., and the pl. by Pr., Sp. milla, Pg. milha fem.]
1. a. Originally, the Roman lineal measure of 1,000 paces (mille passus or passuum), computed to have been about 1,618 yards. Hence, the unit of measure derived from this, used in the British Isles and in other English-speaking countries. Its length has varied considerably at different periods and in different localities, chiefly owing to the influence of the agricultural system of measures with which the mile has been brought into relation (see furlong). The legal mile in Britain and the U.S. is now 1,760 yards. The Irish mile of 2,240 yards is still in rustic use. The obsolete Scottish mile was longer than the English, and probably varied according to time and place; one of the values given for it is 1,976 yards.
The use of the sing. form with a plural numeral is now only vulgar or dialectal; in the earlier part of the 19th c. it was recognized as permissible colloquially.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 129 Ac eac swylce Gerusalem þa burh, seo is west þonon from þære stowe on anre mile. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 147/22 Miliarium, leouue, mile. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 127 Se ðe net þe to gonne mid him twa milen, ga mid him þrie. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 48/48 Þat bote þreo Mile þanne it nas. ? a 1300 Shires & Hundreds of Eng. in. O.E. Misc. 145 Engle lond is eyhte hundred Myle long, from penwyþ steorte þat is fyftene Mylen by-yonde Mihhales steowe. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7683 And þat ilka myle fully contene A thowsand pases or cubites sene. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 782 The Inglishmen was than within a myill. 1470–85 Malory Arthur iv. iv. 123 Kyng Pellinore was within thre myle with a grete hoost. 1532 More Epitaph Pref., Wks. 1419/1 Thre smal Miles from London. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 27 The craig is a myl within the Sey. 1655 Fuller Hist. Camb. 37 An hairs breadth fixed by a divine finger, shall prove as effectuall a separation from danger, as a miles distance. 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. 375 Eleven Irish miles make 14 English. 1690 Marlborough in Ld. Wolseley Life (1894) II. 213 A place called Macrom twelfe milles from hence. 1699 Bentley Phal. i. 97 The Mistake in the Situation, might perhaps be five Mile. 1769 Goldsm. Hist. Rome (1786) II. 51 In this plain..were two little hills at about a mile distance from each other. a 1796 Burns ‘O, my luve's like a red, red rose’, And I will come again, my luve, Tho' it were ten thousand mile. 1838 Thirlwall Greece xx. III. 154 The channel between the two points is not quite a mile broad. 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. xl, I'd go ten thousand mile. |
b. (Explicitly
square mile or
superficial mile.) A measure of area equal to the content of a square with a side one mile in length. So, rarely,
cubic († cubical) mile: a measure of volume equal to that of a cube bounded by lines one mile in length.
| 1698 J. Keill Exam. Th. Earth (1734) 129 Twenty six Po's will pour into the Sea one Cubical mile of water in a day. 1864 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 121 A thousand square miles. |
c. A race, or a portion of a race, extending over a mile's length of the course.
| 1901 Daily Tel. 12 Oct. 10/2 Fourier..broke all automobile records... The time for the fastest mile was 66·4–5 sec. |
d. transf. and
fig. Chiefly
adverbially in plural, implying a great distance or interval.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 54 The Letter is too long by halfe a mile. 1592 ― Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 82 Villaine and he, be many Miles assunder. 1885 Punch 12 Dec. 281/1 The fellows generally bag his music, and make him play the ‘Mikado’ which is miles better. 1889 Ruskin Præterita 109 My eldest Irish pupil..was miles and miles my superior. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 282 Awful fuss always made about him. No swell within miles of him. 1919 ‘C. Dane’ Legend 64 He had heard nothing... He was miles away. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 639 Bloom..picked it up..meaning to return it to him..whose thoughts were miles away from his hat at the time. 1932 ‘E. M. Delafield’ Thank Heaven Fasting i. iv. 65, I should have thought he'd be miles better than no one. 1943 J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday vii. 38 Not that the boys drew back..but..not one of them came within miles of being..Mister Right. 1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris xv. 287 Pierre Vautier, smiling, gesturing and talking a mile a minute to an attractive brunette. 1961 M. Kelly Spoilt Kill iii. 166 Freddy was miles out in alleging Corinna's coldness. 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1184/1 Miles away, be, to be either day-dreaming or lost in thought. 1964 C. Willock Enormous Zoo viii. 133 Ken Beaton's original estimate of the elephant, buffalo and hippo population had been miles out. 1969 A. La Bern Nice Class of People ii. 11 Ann Corrie had to repeat the sentence... He was miles away. 1970 J. Porter Rather Common Sort of Crime i. 17 She was on the scrounge... You could spot it a mile off. 1970 Globe Mag. (Toronto) 26 Sept. 9/3 The meeting..is going well. Stephen has made some miles by talking about the proposed shutdown of the Garden City Paper Mills. 1973 L. Snelling Heresy i. vii. 52 The French technicians are all..very Lefty... He can keep them from getting within a mile of the set. 1974 N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 176 This hasn't been done cold-bloodedly for money... Makes it all miles easier. 1974 D. Gray Dead Give Away ii. 28 ‘Aunt Milly's miles out,’ said Marion. ‘As usual.’ |
2. Used to render its etymological equivalent in other European languages.
In Italy (where there are many different miles), Spain, and Portugal, the ‘mile’ has been developed from the ancient Roman measure, and its length ranges between
7/
8 and 1
1/
4 English mile. In Germany, Austria, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, the ‘mile’ seems to represent the ancient Germanic
rasta, to which the Latin name was apparently applied arbitrarily; its values range from about 3
1/
4 to over 6 English miles.
| c 1400 Mandeville (1839) v. 55 It is wel a 1880 Myle of Lombardye. 1538 Elyot Dict., Rasta, a duche myle. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 57, 8. of these furlonges do make an Italian or Englishe mile, which beyng multiplied by 4. makes .32. furlonges, the length of a comon Germanie mile. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 179 After I had ridden four houres space (for the Sweitzers miles are so long,..); I wondered to heare that we had ridden but one mile. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 415 The Hungarian miles are the longest vpon earth, for euery one of theirs, is sixe of our Scots miles, nine English. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. lxxxix. 408 note, These computed German miles are in some places four, in others five miles English. |
3. geographical mile,
geometrical mile,
† maritime mile,
nautic(al mile: a measure of length
= one minute of a great circle of the earth.
Owing to the fact that the earth is not a true sphere, the ‘mile’ as thus defined varies considerably, the difference between the extreme values being about 62 feet; when taken as a minute of the meridian, the value increases with the latitude, in consequence of the varying curvature. It has therefore been found convenient to assign a standard value for nautical use; the British Admiralty fixed it at 6,080 feet.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. viii. 362 Three hundred Maritine miles. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 287 Italian or geometrical miles (at the rate of 60 to a degree). 1834 Nat. Philos., Navig. ii. ii. 15 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.), A geographical or nautical mile is 1/60 of a degree of a great circle of the earth. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. v. (ed. 2) 201 note, The Nautical mile as defined by hydrographers is the length of a minute of the meridian, and is different for every different latitude. 1890 E. F. Knight Cruise of ‘Alerte’ viii. 131 Trinidad is roughly 680 nautic miles from Bahia. |
† 4. As a vague measure of time; the time in which one might journey a mile;
= mileway.
Obs.| c 1330 Florice & Bl. (1857) 504 Hire cussing laste amile And that hem thoughte litel while. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 24 And thogh I stonde there a myle, Al is foryete for the while. 14.. Sir Beues 775 (MS. C.), A long myle he soght, Or he the bore fynde moght. c 1440 Ipomydon 1466 He had not slepyd but a while, Not the space of a myle. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 5059 For before a litil while Noght þe space of half a mile. 1594 Spenser Amoretti lxxxvi, And maketh euery minute seem a myle. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple
attrib., as in
mile-race; also in combinations with prefixed numeral, as
twenty-mile walk,
six-mile track.
b. Combined with
adjs., as in
mile-deep,
mile-high,
mile-long,
mile-wide;
mile-consuming ppl. adj. Also (
nonce-uses) in attributive or adjectival uses of
advb. phrases, as
mile-away,
mile(s-off.
| 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. 101 The tiny black buoy-flag on the shoulder of a *mile-away swell. |
| 1932 W. Faulkner Light in August i. 8 He drove on, the wagon beginning to fall into its slow and *mileconsuming clatter. |
| 1888 J. R. Lowell Fitz Adam's Story in Heartsease & Rue iv. 151 *Mile-deep the glaciers brooded here, they say. 1903 ― Settler 20 in Five Nations 154 The locust's mile-deep swarm. |
| 1963 J. Lusby in B. James Austral. Short Stories 229 A black speck raced towards me along the rim of a *mile-high blood-red cliff of cumulus. 1968 Listener 27 June 841/2 The ozone-drenched, mile-high city of Denver. |
| 1834 De Quincey in Tait's Mag. I. 85/1 At times we turned off into some less tumultuous street, but of the same *mile-long character. |
| 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 140 The rooks..have flapped heavily home to the *mile-off rookery. 1881 T. Hardy Laodicean v. v, There was a miles-off expression in hers [sc. her eyes]. |
| 1866 J. G. Whittier Snow-Bound 22 Where Salisbury's level marshes spread *Mile-wide as flies the laden bee. 1903 Kipling Five Nations 56, I heard the mile-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers. |
c. Special comb.:
mile-a-minute attrib., travelling at a rate of a mile a minute; covering a mile a minute;
mile-eater (
cf. eat v. 18 g)
colloq., a fast driver or traveller;
mile-heat, a racing heat of one mile;
mile-horse, a horse trained for a mile race;
mile-hunter, a cyclist who is intent on accomplishing great distances;
mile-mark, a milestone or other object placed to indicate the distance of a mile from a starting-point or from another mark;
mile-post, a post serving as a mile-mark; also
fig.; hence
mile-posted ppl. a.;
† mile-square, a square mile.
| 1957 Railway Mag. Nov. 752/2 In view of the Eastern, North Eastern and Scottish changes, a new table of their *mile-a-minute runs for the winter appears here. 1961 Christian Science Monitor 9 Jan., The daredevil courage needed to flash down a hard-packed track at better than a mile-a-minute speed. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 20 Aug. 12/1 These *mile-eaters go early to bed and prefer their steam⁓horses to our live ones. 1957 S. Moss In Track of Speed i. 9 The driver himself must possess those faculties which go to make the expert mile-eater. |
| 1802 N. Macon Let. 10 Sept. in J. Steele Papers (1924) I. 315 He says there are no regular *Mile heats at that turf. 1868 H. Woodruff Trotting Horse vi. 70 You can tell by the way he finishes..whether he will be likely to stand the mile-heat out and to repeat it. |
| 1829 Sporting Mag. XXIII. 266 As to the *mile horses, I spoke of rackers, and not of trotters. |
| 1898 Cycling 26 En route—Do not degenerate into a ‘*mile-hunter’. |
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 423 London-stone, which I take to have beene a Milliarie or *Milemarke. 1892 Stevenson Across the Plains 308 Christmas is not only the mile-mark of another year. |
| 1768 in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1907) II. 317 As we returned (besides the *Mile Posts) we erected Marks on the Tops of all the High Ridges. 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 50 Beal headed Wood at every mile-post. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 26 Mar. 12/2 Oxford paddled up to the mile-post. 1926 Ade Let. 29 Aug. (1973) 107 The day in 1894 when the editor put me in charge of a department was an important mile post. 1941 W. Temple Citizen & Churchman i. 2 It is in reality a mile-post marking the distance away from it which thought has travelled. 1954 R. D. Burnell Oxf. & Cambr. Boat Race vi. 116 Cambridge led at once... At the Mile Post they led by seven seconds. |
| 1896 ‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Jan. 294/2 The road was *mile-posted with English fortresses, so to speak. |
| 1754 Edwards Freed. Will iv. viii. (1762) 242 'Tis improper to talk of Months and Years of the Divine Existence, and *Mile-squares of Deity. |
▪ II. † mile, n.2 Obs. Forms: 1
miil,
mil, 4–5
mylie, 4–6
myle,
mile, 5
myld(e,
milde. See also
mill n.2 [OE. m{iacu}l (and, prob. independently, ME. myle), ad. L. milium: see millet1.] = millet1.
| a 800 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 32/35 Milium, miil. c 1050 Voc. ibid. 443/19 Milium, mil. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxviii. 25 Barly, and myle, and ficche. ― Ezek. iv. 9 Take thou to thee whete, and barli, and bene, and lent, and mylie. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cv. (1495) 669 Myle [v.r. mile] is an herbe with a longe stalke. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 722 Eek myld is good [for geese]. 1551 Turner Herbal ii. 40 Lithospermon..is called gray mil..to put a difference betwene it and the other mile or millet. 1568 Ibid. iii. Pref., Myle called in Duche Herse, in Latin Milium. |
▪ III. † mile, v. Obs. rare.
trans. To ornament (a cloth) with stripes near the edge. Only in
miled (later
milded)
ppl. a.;
miling vbl. n., a stripe.
The sense seems to be certain from a comparison of
quot. 1523 with an entry of 1496–7 in the same document, p. 32: ‘An Awlter clothe diaper..with iiij Blewe Rayes at euery ende of the saide cloth’.
| 1512 in Jacob's Hist. Faversham (1774) 164 A lyttel olde towell pleyn miled with blewe. 1523 Rec. St. Mary-at-Hill (1904) 35 An aulter cloth of fine dyapre with a Cros of Sylke in the Middes..& at euery ende v. blewe Mylynges. 1548 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., A Towell of dyapar myleed wyth blewe. 1566 Churchw. Acc. St. Dunstan's, Canterb., A towell mylded with blewe. One towelle mylded. One towelle mylded with whyt. 1590 in Archæologia XL. 340 Itm, two mylded napkins. |