Pronunciation Noun
distance
- (countable) The amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.
- The distance to Petersborough is thirty miles.
- From Moscow, the distance is relatively short to Saint Petersburg, relatively long to Novosibirsk, but even greater to Vladivostok.
- Length or interval of time.
- ten years' distance between one and the other
- the writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years
- (countable, informal) The difference; the subjective measure between two quantities.
- We're narrowing the distance between the two versions of the bill. The distance between the lowest and next gear on my bicycle is annoying.
- Remoteness of place; a remote place.
- easily managed from a distance
- 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.
- 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, published 1712, [Act 5, scene 1]:
- [He] waits at distance till he hears from Cato.
- Remoteness in succession or relation.
- the distance between a descendant and his ancestor
- A space marked out in the last part of a racecourse.
- the horse that ran the whole field out of distance
- (uncountable, figuratively) The entire amount of progress to an objective.
- He had promised to perform this task, but did not go the distance.
- (uncountable, figuratively) A withholding of intimacy; alienation; variance.
- The friendship did not survive the row: they kept each other at a distance.
- 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Seditions and Troubles
- Setting them [factions] at distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book 8”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
- On the part of Heaven, / Now alienated, distance and distaste.
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗:
- In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
- The remoteness or reserve which respect requires; hence, respect; ceremoniousness.
- I hope your modesty / Will know what distance to the crown is due.
- 'Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld.
- The space measured back from the winning-post which a racehorse running in a heat must reach when the winner has covered the whole course, in order to run in the final heat.
- (remoteness) farness
- French: distance
- German: Distanz, Entfernung, Abstand
- Italian: distanza
- Portuguese: distância
- Russian: расстоя́ние
- Spanish: distancia
distance (distances, present participle distancing; past and past participle distanced)
- (transitive) To move away (from) someone or something.
- He distanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.
- (transitive) To leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 71:
- Then the horse, with muscles strong as steel, distanced the sound.
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 71:
- German: entfernen
- Portuguese: distanciar-se, afastar-se
- Spanish: distanciarse, alejarse
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