mile

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a footrace extending one mile

   They hold the record in the mile.

2. 2
   noun

   a former British unit of length equivalent to 6,080 feet (1,853.184 meters)

   800 feet longer than a statute mile

3. 3
   noun

   a large distance

   The basketball player missed by a mile.

4. 4
   noun

   The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.

   Turn left in 1.2 miles.

5. 5
   noun

   Any of several customary units of length derived from the 1593 English statute mile of 8 furlongs, equivalent to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards of various precise values.

   Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

6. 6
   noun

   Any similarly large distance.

   The shot missed by a mile.

7. 7
   noun

   A race of 1 mile's length; a race of around 1 mile's length (usually 1500 or 1600 meters)

   The runners competed in the mile.

8. 8
   noun

   One mile per hour, as a measure of speed.

   five miles over the speed limit

Etymology

From Middle English myle, mile, from Old English mīl, from Proto-West Germanic *mīliju, a borrowing of Latin mīlia, mīllia, plural of mīle, mīlle (“mile”) (literally ‘thousand’ but used as a short form of mīlle passūs (“a thousand paces”)).