What does "space" mean?
Space: Place, having more or They gave him chase, and hunted him as hare; Long had he no space to dwell [in]. R. of Brunne. While I have time and space. Chaucer.
Additional senses
- 2.A quantity or portion of extension; distance from one thing to another; an interval between any two or more objects; as, the space between two stars or two hills; the sound was heard for the space of a mile. Put a space betwixt drove and drove. Gen. xxxii.
- 3.4. Quantity of time; an interval between two points of time; duration; time. "Grace God gave him here, this land to keep long space." R. of brunne. Nine times the space that measures day and night. Milton. God may defer his judgments for a time, and give a people a longer space of repentance. Tillotson.
- 4.A short time; a while. [R.] "To stay your deadly strife a space." Spenser.
- 5.Walk; track; path; course. [Obs.] This ilke [same] monk let old things pace, And held after the new world the space. Chaucer.
- 6.(print.) (a) A small piece of metal cast lower than a face type, so as not to receive the ink in printing, -- used to separate words or letters. (b) The distance or interval between words or letters in the lines, or between lines, as in books. Note: Spaces are of different thicknesses to enable the compositor to arrange the words at equal distances from each other in the same line.
- 7.(Mus.) One of the intervals, or open places, between the lines of the staff. Absolute space, Euclidian space, etc. See under Absolute, Euclidian, etc. -- Space line (Print.), a thin piece of metal used by printers to open the lines of type to a regular distance from each other, and for other purposes; a lead. Hansard. -- Space rule (Print.), a fine, thin, short metal rule of the same height as the type, used in printing short lines in tabular matter.
- 8.To walk; to rove; to roam. [Obs.] And loved in forests wild to space. Spenser.
- 9.To arrange or adjust the spaces in or between; as, to space words, lines, or letters.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00