(chiefly, nautical, historical, US) A man's armspan, generally reckoned to be six feet (about 1.8 metres). Later used to measure the depth of water, but now generally replaced by the metre outside American usage.
After we'd rowed for an hour, we found ourselves stranded ten fathoms from shore.
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(nautical, US) A measure of distance to shore: the nearest point to shore at which the water depth is the value quoted.
At fifty fathoms, the waters of the Southern Ocean are dark blue.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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