DCHP-2

line ((n.)) DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1a n.

  a strong line or rope used in tracking (def. 1).

  See also: tracking (def. 1)  tracking line  

  • 1794  (1929)  [We] mounted the Grand Rapid by the line without accident.
  • 1872  A descent of over three feet per mile in the river flow generally requires the line.
  • 1955  They pulled the rope over their shoulders and so towed the boat by "line."

• 1b n. — Local

  See quote.

  See also: head of the line  

  • 1940  It should be explained that this part of the [Mackenzie] river is called "the line" because, in the days before steamers, the scows, boats and canoes had to be tracked upstream with tow-lines.

• 2 n.

  the border between Canada and the United States.

  See also: border  lines (def. 3)  

  • 1812  . . . we may therefore conclude that those who have set up the war-whoop, on the other side of the line, have yet the trade to learn.
  • 1860  But why is the British Columbian settler to pay double for land worth no more than that on the other side of the line?
  • 1962  "I never saw a horse like him," marvelled a rider from across the line, "Kickers or whirlers or straight buckers are all the same to him."

• 3a n. — Obs.

  the strips of settlement in the back country.

  See also: lines (def. 2)  

• 3b n.

  a settlement road in Upper Canada, especially one identified with settlers of a certain origin. See 1896 quote.

  • 1828  . . . a teamster by the name of M'Pherson from the Scotch line, lost his span of horses and sleigh on Tuesday last. . . .
  • 1853  (1959)  George Desne . . . lived about three miles from the clearing known as the English line.
  • 1896  [. . . the line of settlement went on merely as a line, not spreading out till long afterwards, so that as the land pleased them they sat down beside one another on both sides of the line rather than go back from it. The line was prolonged with settlers into Bristol, which was chiefly taken up by Scotchman.]
  • 1961  McNaughton's Plan of 1836 shows Queen's Line as an opened road.
  • 1965  True, there are highly visible shack-towns . . . the French Line up in Lanark and, over a larger area of the Shield, the Ozarks of Ontario.
  • 1966  Their murder was the climax to a feud that raged among the Irish immigrants along the Roman Line of Biddulph township [near London, Ont.]

• 3c n.

  a road, especially one built through the bush.

  • Probably a reduction of line of road, as in:

  • 1832  Another line of road . . . was pointed out . . . as a great military road from Halifax to Quebec.

• 3c n.

  • This usage seems commonest in areas of Irish and Scots settlement and may derive from older dialectal usage in the British Isles. See W. Kirwin, "Lines . . . in Newfoundland Names," America Speech (Oct., 1965), 163-5.

  • 1830  The greater part of this line is either a rough horsepath, or in the same state as that described under the name of a "new cut."
  • 1832  This line would be a continuation of the road from Halifax to the bend of the River Petit Coudiac, thence to the gulf coast. . . .
  • 1947  Whatever they could produce was easy to market, and if they didn't want to farm they could work farther up the line on the timber limits, which are now inside the Park boundaries.

• 4a † n. — Hist.

  a line of blazed trees, stakes or cairns marking the boundary of a concession, lot, or other surveyed piece of land.

  See also: concession line (def. 1)  

  • 1833  (1926)  We found it almost impossible to ascertain our exact position, for the blazes which denote the lines of the lots and concessions are obliterated by time--if they were ever properly marked.
  • 1846  (1927)  Each settler was allowed to cut down the timber on that part of the line which adjoined his lot.
  • 1954  "Years ago," he said, "I worked for a summer in the bush with a survey party, cutting lines."

• 4b n. — Ont.

  a road built on the road allowance between concessions, following the concession line and connected to other concession roads by side roads, the distance separating each being, as a rule, 1¼ miles.

  See also: concession road  

  • 1863  They wished even for the corduroy expedient a little farther on, when the line became encumbered with stumps left from the underbrushing. . . .
  • 1924  (1933)  . . . this grain was hauled down the 6th line and stored till the spring in Isaac Chafee's warehouse at Tullamore.
  • 1963  A 67-year old retired farmer was found dead . . . yesterday when a neighbor called at their cottage on the 12th Line of Brooke Township. . . .

• 5 n.

  a series of traps set and maintained by a trapper who periodically runs the line, removing the trapped animals and resetting the traps.

  See also: trapline (def. 1)  

  • 1853  Moreover, he [the wolverine] will follow the tracks of the trapper from one to another, until he has destroyed the whole line.
  • 1872  We followed an old "sable line" . . . a line of traps set for that animal.
  • 1946  We paddled fifteen miles further upriver, and there, where a turbulent creek empties into Horn River from the west or mountain side, we built another small line cabin.
  • 1964  During the slim years . . . trappers left their lines and sought employment in business and industry.

• 6a † n. — Football

  the seven players ranged along the line of scrimmage at the beginning of each down.

  • 1912  He bucked the line in fine shape. But it wasn't the full back or the scrimmage either. If the quarter had been right, it would have been different.
  • 1960  And like a line plunger, he just whirled and crushed through the guests toward the door.

• 6b n.

  in hockey and lacrosse, the line of three forwards.

  • 1966  The line of Jean Beliveau, Claude Provost and Gilles Tremblay figures to remain intact.

• 7 n.

  See 1953 quote.

  See also: main line (def. 2)  

  • 1907  They [smalltime "free-traders"] could almost always "dead-head" their way up the line on a construction train.
  • 1938  Part of the way to "the line" I pulled my outfit on a handsled.
  • 1953  . . . provincial policemen carefully inspected the men who were going up to "the line" (transcontinental railway then being built, now the northern line of the Canadian National).

• 8 n.

  the rope by which sled-dogs are hitched to a sled, often made of rawhide.

  • 1951  We tried Chasseur, who was . . . now back on the line and pulling like a Trojan. . . .