mile, n.1
View as:
Inflections:
Plural miles, unchanged.
Etymology:
Cognate with West Frisian mile , myl , Middle Dutch mīle , miel , mijl (Dutch mijl ), Middle Low German mīle , Old High German mīla , mīlla , mīl (Middle High German mīle , mīl , German Meile ), all ultimately < classical Latin mīlia , mīllia , plural of mīle , mīlle a mile, spec. use (short for mīlle passūs or mīlle passuum a thousand paces) of mīle , mīlle thousand (see milli- comb. form). Old Icelandic míla , Old Swedish mil , mila (Swedish mil , †mila ), Danish mil are probably ultimately borrowings < Middle Low German. Compare also (from the Latin plural) Occitan milha (c1300), Catalan milla (1343), Portuguese milha (13th cent. as milla ), Spanish milla (early 15th cent.), Italian miglia (feminine plural, 13th cent.; whence analogical masculine singular miglio ), and (from the Latin singular) French mille , masculine (1213 in Old French denoting the Roman mīlle passūs , c1245 in sense 1b, 1580 denoting the English mile, 1797 in maritime use). The unchanged plural (probably reflecting the Old English nominative, accusative, and genitive plural form mīla ) is often retained following a cardinal number, and is a common feature of words denoting units of measurement (compare foot n. 7a, pound n.1).(Show Less)
In Old English a weak feminine noun mīle existed alongside strong feminine mīl ; the β forms are developed from inflected forms of the Old English weak noun.
1.
a. Originally: the Roman unit of distance of 1000 paces (mīlle passus or passuum), reckoned to have been about 1618 yards (approx. 1479 metres). Hence: a unit of distance derived from this used in the British Isles and in other English-speaking countries, and now equal to 1760 yards (approx. 1609 metres). Frequently with a prefixed numeral forming a phrase used attributively.The length of the mile 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 n.). It was fixed by statute at 1760 yards (viz. 8 furlongs of 40 poles, each pole being 16½ feet) in 1592 (Act 35 Eliz. I, c. 6, s. 8), and in Britain is also called a statute mile. This is also the legal mile in the United States. The obsolete Irish mile was 2240 yards (approx. 2048 metres), and the Scottish mile (obsolete by the late 19th century) was 1976 yards (approx. 1807 metres) although values probably varied according to time and place.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist.
(BL Add.)
ii. iv. 43
He [sc. the wall of Babylon] is l elna brad & ii hund elna heah, & his ymbgong is hundseofontig mila & seofeða dæl anre mile.
OE Blickling Homilies 129
Ac eac swylce Gerusalem þa burh, seo is west þonon from þære stowe on anre mile.
OE Antwerp Gloss.
(1955)
139
Miliarium, leouue, mile.
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron.
(Laud)
(Peterborough interpolation)
anno 656,
Swa þæt rihte weie .x. mile lang to Cuggedic.
a1225
(▸c1200)
Vices & Virtues 127 (MED),
Se ðe net þe to gonne mid him twa milen, ga mid him þrie.
a1300 Shires & Hundreds Eng. in R. Morris Old Eng. Misc.
(1872)
145
Engle lond is eyhte hundred Myle long from penwyþ steorte, þat is fyftene Mylen by-yonde Mihhales steowe.
c1300 St. Edward Elder
(Laud)
48 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary
(1887)
48
Þat bote þreo Mile þanne it nas.
a1425
(▸a1400)
Prick of Conscience
(Galba & Harl.)
(1863)
7683 (MED),
And þat ilka myle fully contene A thowsand pases or cubites sene.
▸a1470 Malory Morte Darthur
(Winch. Coll. 13)
(1990)
I. 130
Kynge Pellynore was within three myle with a grete oste.
1488
(▸c1478)
Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace
(Adv.)
v. l. 782
The Inglismen was than within a myill.
c1503 R. Arnold Chron. f. lxvi/1,
v. fote make a pace. C.xxv. pace make a furlong and viij furlong make an english myle.
1557 W. Rastell in T. More Wks. II. 1419/1
Thre smal Miles from London.
1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl.
(1888)
I. 27
The craig is a myl within the Sey.
1624 A. Huntar Treat. Weights & Meas. Scotl. i. 10
The English Myle is more than the Fundamentall, or Italian Myle of paces 56, of English yardes, 93 and 1 inch, and of Scottish measure 90, Elnes and 30, inches.
1655 T. Fuller Hist. Univ. Cambr. ii. 37 in Church-hist. Brit.,
An hairs-breadth fixed by a divine-finger, shall prove as effectuall a separation from danger, as a miles distance.
1678 E. Howard Man of Newmarket iv. i. 42
We have rode a four-mile Course with 'em in conceit too!
a1687 W. Petty Polit. Anat. Ireland
(1691)
112
Eleven Irish Miles make 14 English.
1690 Duke of Marlborough in Ld. Wolseley Life Marlborough
(1894)
II. 213
A place called Macrom twelfe milles from hence.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 301
A great Tree, at about a quarter of a Mile from me.
1786 Goldsmith's Rom. Hist.
(rev. ed.)
II. 51
In this plain..were two little hills at about a mile distance from each other.
1794 R. Burns Red, Red Rose ii, in P. Urbani Select. Scots Songs 17
And I will come again, My Love, Tho 'twere ten thousand mile.
a1817 J. Austen Lady Susan xvii, in Wks.
(1954)
VI. 271,
I think I should have discovered the truth in the course of a Thirty mile Journey.
1838 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece
(new ed.)
III. xx. 154
The channel between the two points is not quite a mile broad.
1850 Dickens David Copperfield xl. 416
I'd go ten thousand mile.
1864 G. O. Trevelyan Competition Wallah 30
The sun was low enough to allow me to venture on a six-mile walk.
a1878 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage to Land of Burns 184
A lang Scots mile was shortlin's past.
1885 R. Holland Gloss. Words County of Chester
(1886)
at Moil,
It's three moil to Knutsford.
1908 Daily Chron. 11 June 1/4
At this altitude of two miles above the ground her feet became entangled in the trapeze ropes.
1934 D. Thomas Let. c3 July
(1987)
146
Sea half a mile off. Better sea four or five miles off. Lunatic asylum mile off.
1976 Daily Tel. 30 June 1/4
It was calculated that Thomas..was more than 1,200 miles out to sea.
1998 Chicago Tribune 27 Aug. i. 5/2
The processional stretched more than a mile and took two hours to reach All Saints Cemetery.
b. Used to render its etymological equivalents (formerly used as units of distance) in any of various (usually specified) European languages. In Italy (where there were many different such measures), Spain, and Portugal, the ‘mile’ was developed from the ancient Roman measure, and its length ranged between 7/ 8 and 1¼ English miles. In Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, the ‘mile’ seems to represent the ancient Germanic rasta (see rest n.1), to which the Latin name was apparently applied arbitrarily; its values ranged from about 3 to over 6 English miles.
?a1425
(▸c1400)
Mandeville's Trav.
(Titus C.xvi)
(1919)
36
It is wel a .m viij & iiij. score myle of lombardye.
1484 W. Cely Let. 29 Feb. in Cely Lett.
(1975)
200
The Dewke Maxymelyanys..lyethe styll wythyn iiij Dewche meyll off Brugys.
1538 T. Elyot Dict. at 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.
1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum 528
Antiquitis hath taught, that the compasse of this earth containeth aboute, where it is widest, five thousande and foure hundred Germaine miles, or 21000,600, Italian miles.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 123
In the afternoone we passed five miles in six houres, through barren fields of corne, and groves of beech and haselnuts to Copenhagen.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. ix. 415
The Hungarian miles are the longest vpon earth, for euery one of theirs, is sixe of our Scots miles, nine English.
1711 Atlas Geographus I. 8
The Turkish miles are the same with the Italian.
1753 J. Hanway Hist. Acct. Brit. Trade Caspian Sea II. xxx. 180
These computed German miles are in some places 4, in others 5 miles English.
1803 C. Wilmot Let. 7 Aug. in Irish Peer on Continent
(1920)
208
Each post is two German miles (ten English ones).
1876 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 5 280
Its [sc. the island of Lesina's] length from east to west is thirty-seven (Italian) miles.
1914 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 22 513
Weight up to 5 kilograms (about 11 pounds):..Up to 10 German miles (46.1 English miles), 25 pfennigs.
1998 J. L. Heilbron Geom. Civilized v. 253
A suspicious earlier measurement involving a mountain 5.5 Arab miles high.
c. A race over a distance of one mile. Also: a portion of a race extending over a mile's length of the course.
1851 Internat. Mag. Lit., Art & Sci. 4 61
Pelham is a young horse for a trotter, say seven years old, and has already done the fastest mile ever made in harness.
1901 Daily Tel. 12 Oct. 10/2
Fourier..broke all automobile records... The time for the fastest mile was 66·4–5 sec.
1919 Outing Mar. 311/1
Frank rode the fastest mile of his entire career in 1914, when he covered the distance in 1:59 from a standing start.
1958 Observer 24 Aug. 18/2
Every year there is a supposed mile or 1,500 metres of the century. But to-morrow's race will be one of the great athletic spectacles of all time.
1966 A. Sachs Jail Diary vi. 58
The guards are used to my running; they think it is a big joke and tell me to enter for the mile.
1980 Morning Star 19 May 6/1
Seb is running in the mile, and I want to run in it too.
†2. As an imprecise measure of time: the time it might take to travel a mile. Cf. mileway n. Obs.
c1275
(▸?a1200)
Laȝamon Brut
(Calig.)
(1963)
5819
Þer innen heo runden ane lutle while, ne leaste hit na wiht ane mile.
c1300
(▸c1250)
Floris & Blauncheflur
(Cambr.)
513 (MED),
Here kessinge ileste a mile.
▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis
(Fairf.)
iv. 689 (MED),
Thogh I stonde there a myle, Al is foryete.
?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert
(1891)
5059
For before a litil while, Noght þe space of half a myle.
a1500
(▸?c1300)
Bevis of Hampton
(Cambr.)
775
A long myle he soght, Or he the bore fynde moght.
a1500
(▸?a1425)
Ipomedon
(Harl.)
(1889)
1466 (MED),
He had not slepyd but a while, Not the space of a myle.
1595 Spenser Amoretti lxxxvii, in Amoretti & Epithalamion sig. F5,
And maketh euery minute seeme a myle.
3. Chiefly in hyperbolic use.
a. A great distance, amount, or interval. Cf. a million miles at million adj. 2.
1508 W. Dunbar Goldyn Targe
(Chepman & Myllar)
in Poems
(1998)
191
New Acquyntance..fauouryt me, quhill men mycht go a myle.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost v. ii. 54
The Letter is too long by halfe a mile.
1762 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy V. xv. 68
Do you know whether my fiddle's in tune or no?.. 'Tis wickedly strung... The bridge is a mile too high, and the sound-post absolutely down.
1820 W. Irving Legend Sleepy Hollow in Sketch Bk. vi. 57
He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves..and his whole frame most loosely hung together.
1852 Punch 24 Jan. 42/1
The seven Wonders of a Young Lady... 5... Wearing shoes that were not ‘a mile too big for her’.
1987 Boxing News 21 Aug. 5/2
Boza-Edwards lost by a mile to Hector Camacho and was lucky to survive the first round.
b. In pl. used adverbially. By a great distance, amount, or interval.
1858 Atlantic Monthly Sept. 422/1,
I knew well enough Major was miles and miles better and sweeter and cleverer than I was.
1869 L. M. Alcott Little Women II. xi. 166
The conversation was miles beyond Jo's comprehension, but she enjoyed it, though Kant and Hegel were unknown gods.
1889 J. Ruskin Præterita III. iii. 109
My eldest Irish pupil..was miles and miles my superior.
1932 ‘E. M. Delafield’ Thank Heaven Fasting i. iv. 65,
I should have thought he'd be miles better than no one.
1958 G. Casey Snowball 34
They reckon station rations are miles better for everybody, now.
1987 R. Carver Elephant
(1988)
111
Politically and temperamentally, they were miles apart.
4. Any of several similar units of distance used in making precise nautical or geographical measurements. Chiefly in compounds.geographical, maritime, nautical, sea mile: see the first element. For the history of the relationship between the mile and the degree see D. W. Waters Art Navig. Eliz. & Stuart Times (ed. 2, 1978). Because the earth is not a true sphere but flattened at the poles, the value of a mile defined as a minute of a meridian increases with increasing latitude, from approx. 2014 yards (1842 metres) at the equator to approx. 2035 yards (1861 metres) at the pole.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. viii. 362
Three hundred Maritine miles.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. iv. 146
The distance between every one of the Knots must be 50 Foot; as many of these as run out in half a Minute, so many Miles or Minutes the Ship saileth in an Hour.
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World x. 287
Italian or Geometrical miles, (at the rate of 60 to a degree).
1796 C. Hutton Math. & Philos. Dict. I. 530
Geographical Mile, which is the sea-mile or minute.
1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Navigation ii. ii. 15
A geographical or nautical mile is 1/
60 of a degree of a great circle of the earth.
1875 F. G. D. Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk.
(ed. 2)
v. 201
The Nautical mile as defined by hydrographers is the length of a minute of the meridian, and is different for every different latitude.
1934 A. H. R. Goldie Abercromby's Weather
(rev. ed.)
viii. 133
Starting at midnight on the left of the diagram, we should have to go 60 geographical miles south and 90° east of longitude by 6 o'clock in the morning.
1966 Jrnl. Industr. Econ. 14 205
A modern oil tanker of medium size..on a voyage of 3900 maritime miles one way..stays in port for about three days.
2008 Vanity Fair May 272/2
The coastal states' territorial sea extended only 3 nautical miles, as far as a cannonball shot, until the Law of the Sea Treaty extended it to 12 miles in 1982.
Phrases
P1. colloq. Chiefly in hyperbolic use. Cf. sense 3.
a. to see (also spot, tell, etc.) a mile off (also away) : to recognize very easily.
[1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. III. 254
Hee smells a Barbarisme or an incongruitie seaven miles off.]
1773 P. Brydone Tour Sicily & Malta II. 80
The surest method of finding a Capuchin, is by the nose; you may wind him a mile off.
1809 W. Dimond Foundling of Forest i. i. 6,
If they arrive before sun-set, I'm sure I Shall know L'Elair a mile off by the saucy toss of His head.
1837 R. H. Horne Cosmo de' Medici iii. iii. 50
You might know his walk a mile off. 'Tis exactly that of a gladiator who hath just killed His man.
1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage lxxiii. 378
That's rabbit, that is—that's not ermine... I'd know it a mile off.
1959 A. Sillitoe Loneliness of Long-distance Runner
(1962)
126
You could tell a mile off that she was a struggler and that was what nobody liked.
1970 J. Porter Rather Common Sort of Crime i. 17
She was on the scrounge... You could spot it a mile off.
1995 K. O'Riordan Involved 192,
I should have seen this a mile off.
b. a mile a minute : at a rate of a mile a minute; (fig.) very quickly.
1845 Littell's Living Age 2 Aug. 223/2
The Exeter Express train..was proceeding towards Slough with great velocity, (it was asserted more than a mile a minute).
1895 Overland Monthly Nov. 556/2
The games in these localities often consist of snowshoe racing, and so great is the speed attained on a good track..that a mile a minute is made.
1935 C. Odets Till Day I Die in Six Plays Clifford Odets
(1939)
119
The next day he would be wearing a brown shirt and killing workers a mile a minute.
1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris
(U.K. ed.)
xv. 287
Pierre Vautier, smiling, gesturing and talking a mile a minute to an attractive brunette.
1981 S. McAughtry Belfast Stories iii. 123
Away he went at the digging a mile a minute throwing the earth up..as if it was coming out of a hosepipe.
1994 i-D Oct. 32/1
He still talks a mile a minute and is as keen as ever to riff on his favourite topic: the movies.
c. miles away: (of a person) lost in thought and so unaware of the immediate surroundings; (of thoughts) on a different topic, distracted.
1862 W. Collins No Name I. ii. ii. 293
‘Mrs. Wragge is not deaf,’ explained the captain. ‘She's only a little slow... Speak to her—and she drifts miles away from you directly.’
1919 ‘C. Dane’ Legend 64
He had heard nothing... He was miles away.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvi. [Eumaeus] 609
Bloom..picked it up..meaning to return it to him..whose thoughts were miles away from his hat at the time.
1969 A. La Bern Nice Class of People ii. 11
Ann Corrie had to repeat the sentence... He was miles away.
1989 B. Roche Handful of Stars in K. Harwood First Run i. i. 194
Jimmy, spying that Tony is miles away, tries to steal an extra shot.
d. miles from anywhere: in a very isolated, remote, or inaccessible place.
[1848 National Era
(Washington, D.C.)
(Electronic ed.)
27 July,
You can hardly imagine what sort of a place I have got myself into here; just 45 miles from anywhere, shut up on three sides by tall mountains.]
1882 Cornhill Mag. Nov. 613
It might be miles from anywhere, so dense is the gloom, so great is the quiet that surrounds the place.
1929 Daily Mail 9 Sept. 7
The old boat ‘conked out’ miles from anywhere.
1935 N. Mitchison We have been Warned v. 527
It ought..to be made into a sanatorium... A damned inconvenient one..miles from anywhere.
1996 Wanderlust Oct. 66/2
If you stop to make a cup of chai a thousand miles from anywhere, the chances are that a ten-year-old lad will turn up with a flock of musical goats, or a girl out picking berries, or most likely, the local bhang dealer.
e. within miles (also a mile) of : (in negative contexts) close to; within striking distance; near enough to reach, attain, or achieve (something).
[1870 Dickens Edwin Drood xi. 82,
I am so far from trenching upon poetry at any time, that I never, to my knowledge, got within ten thousand miles of it.]
1885 W. D. Howells Rise Silas Lapham xxiii. 420
Then I began to throw good money after bad, just as I always did with everything that Rogers ever came within a mile of.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer
(1891)
282
Awful fuss always made about him. No swell within miles of him.
1943 J. B. Priestley Daylight on Sat. vii. 38
Not that the boys drew back..but..not one of them came within miles of being..Mister Right.
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.
1986 Glasgow Herald 19 June 1/5
This project would not have come within a mile of being economically viable.
f. miles out: very inaccurate.
1961 M. Kelly Spoilt Kill iii. 166
Freddy was miles out in alleging Corinna's coldness.
1964 C. Willock Enormous Zoo viii. 133
Ken Beaton's original estimate of the elephant, buffalo and hippo population had been miles out.
1974 D. Gray Dead Give Away ii. 28
‘Aunt Milly's miles out,’ said Marion. ‘As usual.’
g. to stick out a mile (see to stick out 2 at stick v.1 Phrasal verbs 1).
h. to run a mile (see run v. Phrases 2n).
P2.
a. In proverbial phrase give him (her, etc.) an inch and he'll take a mile and variants: the slightest concession will be unscrupulously exploited.A later form of give him an inch and he'll take an ell at ell n.1 1b.
1837 R. W. Emerson Jrnls. IV. 313
Give them an inch, and they take a mile.
1869 Ladies' Repository Feb. 153/2
Give them an inch and they will take a mile. Allow them the privilege and they will make your home beautiful.
1928 R. Maury Wars of Godly 52
George III was bitterly opposed to granting the catholics another inch, entertaining, as he did, the presentiment that they would take the proverbial mile.
1991 M. Kilby Man at Sharp End 215
The President had given Mueller an inch, but he had already taken a mile.
b. to go (also walk, travel) the extra (also second) mile : to expend more time or effort in an activity than is strictly necessary, as a sign of goodwill; to be especially assiduous in pursuit of an objective.An allusion to Matthew 5:41, ‘And whosoeuer shall compell thee to goe a mile, go with him twaine.’ (A.V.)
[1854 Ladies' Repository Nov. 521
Many must have wondered what can have given rise to the command of going a second mile with the violent man who has already compelled you to go one mile.]
1907 W. E. Barton Religion of Extra Mile 10
You have rejoiced with joy unspeakable that one man, if but one, had a friendship that could go the extra mile.
1944 Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. 31 492
Dr Coleman worked indefatigably for the historical interests of the state. One editorial writer..spoke of him as ‘ever willing to walk the second mile’.
1966 Mil. Affairs 29 207
The U.S. can go the extra mile to ensure that any future determination to employ, or not, nuclear weapons is left not to amorphous and desultory decision-processes.
a1979 J. Grenfell Turn back Clock
(1983)
132
Working like a beaver Always with a smile Ready to take the rough and the smooth To go the extra mile.
1990 Independent 1 Dec. 1/2
I'm not hopeful we're going to get a lot out of this. We're just going the extra mile.
1993 Star-Ledger
(Newark, New Jersey)
22 Oct. 18/5
State regulators will go the ‘extra mile to ensure that this settlement is as investor-friendly as possible and puts as much money back into the hands of as many defrauded investors as possible.’
Compounds
C1.
a. General attrib., designating the length of a course or journey, as mile-course, mile race, etc.
1889 Engineer 15 Nov. 413
A measured mile course was laid off by unreeling from an anchored stake buoy one mile of fine wire.
1903 Motor. Ann. 163
In the mile race the fastest timers in the different classes were [etc.].
1928 Sunday Express 17 June 20/3,
I venture the opinion that he would readily back-mark any man in Scotland over a mile course.
1991 Sports Illustr. 13 May 22/3
Strike the Gold broke his maiden in his third and final start last year, winning a mile race on Nov. 15 at Aqueduct.
b. Freq. hyperbolically.
(a) Combined with adjectives.
mile-deep adj.
1862 Littell's Living Age 26 July 146/2
The tide-waves, whispering evermore To rocks and sands the ocean-lore. Lore of many a mile-deep sea.
1903 R. Kipling in Collier's Weekly 7 Mar. 8/1
The locusts' mile-deep swarm.
1994 Washington Post 3 July e4/1
Some whoop with surprised delight; others are stunned into silence; and more than a few grasp the protective railing tightly in fear as they gape at the mile-deep drop-off at their feet.
mile-high adj.
1834 E. Elliott Spirits & Men in Splendid Village I. 220
How like an eagle, from his mile-high rock, Down sweeps the Gihon, smitten into mist On groaning crags.
1942 National Geographic Mag. June p. viii
(advt.)
Climb the mile-high peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains.
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.
1989 Bon Appetit Sept. 72/1
Pretty mile-high whipped cream cake with fresh fruit.
mile-long adj. (also miles-long)
1813 Byron Let. 12 Nov.
(1974)
III. 163,
I hope the proof will be on separate pages, and not all huddled together on a mile-long ballad-singing sheet.
1936 Discovery Jan. 15/2
One of the miles-long East Coast beaches.
1982 A. Barr & P. York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 50/2
No mile-long knitting, no ‘college’ scarves.
mile-wide adj.
1820 E. Elliott Peter Faultless 107
He star'd with eyes mile-wide, or more.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits ii. 35
In our graveyards we scoop a pit, but this aggressive water opens mile-wide pits and chasms, and makes a mouthful of a fleet.
1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 56,
I heard the mile-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers.
1991 P. J. O'Rourke Parl. of Whores
(1992)
171
His troops had used ‘proportional response’. That is, they didn't soften up positions with mile-wide artillery barrages or huge air strikes.
(b) Combined with present participles.
mile-consuming adj.
1932 W. Faulkner Light in August i. 8
He drove on, the wagon beginning to fall into its slow and mileconsuming clatter.
(c) Also rarely in attributive or adjectival uses of adverb phrases.
mile-away adj.
1897 R. Kipling Capt. Courageous 101
The tiny black buoy-flag on the shoulder of a mile-away swell.
mile-off adj. (also miles-off)
1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 140
The rooks..have flapped heavily home to the mile-off rookery.
1881 T. Hardy Laodicean III. v. v. 61
There was the same miles-off expression in hers [sc. her eyes].
1968 H. Porter Elijah's Ravens 32
He..rounds up red-field sand to kalsomine tomorrow's miles-off privet.
C2.
mile-eater n. colloq. a fast driver or traveller (cf. to eat up 7 at eat v. Phrasal verbs).
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.
1998 Cycling & Mountain Biking Today Apr. 77/2
The Audax is the ultimate fast tourer, designed for mile-eaters with light loads and vast distances to cover.
mile-fortlet n. Roman Hist. any of a series of small fortifications erected along the Cumbrian coast at approximately one-mile intervals.
[1929 R. G. Collingwood in Trans. Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archæol. Soc. 29 153
Future study of these sites [on the Cumberland coast]..should be devoted..to discriminating between small buildings resembling the turrets of the Wall [sc. Hadrian's Wall] and larger buildings resembling its milecastles, which I here call fortlets.]
1948 Trans. Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archæol. Soc. 47 78
The coastal mile-fortlet at Cardurnock.
1990 Antiquaries Jrnl. 70 134/1
Presumably reflecting the much smaller scale of the map base used, only the mile fortlets are included for the Cumberland coast.
† mile-heat n. Obs. a heat of a one-mile race.
1802 N. Macon Let. 10 Sept. in J. Steele Papers
(1924)
I. 315
He says there are no regular Mile heats at that turf.
1877 Spirit of Times 24 Nov. 438/3
Monsieur Tonson was never beaten except once, in mile heats, when he was only two years old.
Mile High Club n. (also mile high club) humorous (orig. U.S.) an imaginary association of people who have had sexual intercourse while travelling in an aircraft.
1972 ‘J. W. Wells’ Come fly with Us 41
Jokes about the Mile-High Club, about balling pilots in the cockpit or passengers in the toilet.
1999 J. Lloyd & E. Rees Come Together viii. 213
I'd even gone as far as assuming that we'd have sex in the toilets and join the Mile High Club.
mile-horse n. rare a horse trained to race over the mile distance.
1829 Sporting Mag. 23 266
As to the mile horses, I spoke of rackers, and not of trotters.
† mile-hunter n. Obs. rare a cyclist who is intent on covering great distances.
1898 Cycling 26
En route—Do not degenerate into a ‘mile-hunter’.
mile marker n. chiefly U.S. = milepost n.
1962 Science 28 Dec. 1407/1
Something of a mile-marker has been reached in the area of testing and applying quantum theory.
1977 Washington Post
(Nexis)
12 May b1,
I saw that mile marker coming and I kept on running and in my head the music was playing. I crossed that mile marker on the fly and I haven't felt anything like it since I hit a home run.
1997 Courier-Jrnl.
(Louisville, Kentucky)
24 Jan. b2/4
If the address is not readily available, look for landmarks, mile markers and the nearest intersection or highway exit to help guide rescuers.
milepath n. poet. a road, spec. one with milestones or (perh. in Old English) †a road so long as to be measured in miles (obs.).
OE Exodus 171
Hwilum of þam werode wlance þegnas mæton milpaðas meara bogum.
1881 F. T. Palgrave Visions of Eng. 2
Her [sc. Rome's] hand With network milepaths binding plain and hill, Arterialized the land.
milepost n. a marker indicating the route and often distance to another point (freq. one of a series, regularly spaced); spec. a point or marker one mile from the finish of a race, etc.; fig., an action or event marking a significant change or stage in development.
1768 in Maryland Hist. Mag.
(1907)
2 317
As we returned (besides the Mile Posts) we erected Marks on the Tops of all the High Ridges.
1812 Sporting Mag. 39 50
Beal headed Wood at every mile-post.
1899 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 752/2
The mileposts they set up on the road to better things will guide another generation to the goal, however the present may go astray.
1926 G. 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.
1954 R. D. Burnell Oxf. & Cambr. Boat Race vi. 116
Cambridge led at once... At the Mile Post they led by seven seconds.
1987 G. Turner Sea & Summer 165
That recession was a historical milepost.
mile-posted adj. rare provided with mileposts (in quot. fig.).
1896 ‘M. Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Jan. 294/2
The road was mile-posted with English fortresses, so to speak.
mile-square n. and adj. [compare square adj. 5] (a) n. a square mile (rare); (b) adj. having the extent of a square mile, covering a square mile.
1754 J. Edwards Careful Enq. Freedom of Will iv. viii. 242
'Tis equally improper, to talk of Months and Years of the divine Existence, and Mile-squares of Deity.
1842 J. Wilson Recreations Christopher North III. 337
A mile-square hover of crows darkens air and earth.
1872 ‘M. Twain’ Roughing It lxxiv. 534
The greater part of the vast floor of the desert under us was as black as ink,..but over a mile square of it was..striped with a thousand branching streams of liquid and gorgeously brilliant fire!
1940 K. Rexroth In what Hour 15
Crossing the brilliant mile-square meadow Illuminated with asters and cyclamen.
1988 H. T. Hoover Yankton Sioux ii. 39
The southwest corner of Greenwood..local residents called mile-square housing because it was situated on the section or square mile of land that contained the agency.
1993 N.Y. Times 28 Nov. viii. 9/4
Deer are often seen in the open in mile-square ditched fields.
