1584,Arthur Barlowe, “The First Voyage Made to the Coastes of America, with Two Barkes, wherein were Captaines MasterPhilip Amadas, and Master Arthur Barlowe, who Discouered Part of the Countrey, Now Called Virginia, Anno 1584. Written by One of the Said Captaines, and Sent to SirWalter Raleigh, Knight, at whose Charge and Direction, the Said Voyage was Set foorth.”, inRichard Hakluyt,The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation,[…], London:[…] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies toChristopher Barker,[…], published1589,→OCLC,page731:
[S]he[…] gaue vs into our boate our ſupper halfe dreſſed, pots, and all, and brought vs to our boates ſide, in which wee laye all night, remoouing the ſame a pretiediſtance from the ſhoare:[…]
The prince is here at hand, pleaſeth your Lordſhip / To meet his grace iuſtdiſtance tvveene our armies.
1634,T[homas] H[erbert], “[Holy Port]”, inA Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia,[…], London:[…]William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome,→OCLC,page 3:
The third ofAprill, early in the morning, vvee had ſight of theHoly Port[Porto Santo], belonging to theSpaniard, vvhich Ile at eight leaguesdiſtance, gaue it ſelfe in this ſhape vnto vs.
Novv by this time the Man vvas got a gooddiſtance from them; But hovvever they vvere reſolved to purſue him; vvhich they did and in little time they over-took him
[W]e get theIdea of Space, both by our Sight, and Touch; vvhich, I think, is ſo evident, that it vvould be as needleſs, to go to prove, that Men perceive by their Sight, adiſtance betvveen Bodies of different Colours, or betvveen the parts of the ſame Body; as that they ſee Colours themſelves: Nor is it leſs obvious, that they can do ſo in the Dark by Feeling and Touch. This Space conſidered barely in length betvveen any tvvo Beings, vvithout conſidering any thing elſe betvveen them, is calleddiſtance: If conſidered in Length, Breadth, and Thickneſs, I think, it may be calledCapacity:[…]
1697,William Dampier, chapter VIII, inA New Voyage Round the World.[…], London:[…] James Knapton,[…],→OCLC,page225:
VVe kept at a gooddiſtance off ſhore, and ſavv no Land till the 14th day; but then, being in lat. 12 d. 50 m. the Volcan ofGuatimala appeared in ſight.
[O]bservations on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites have demonstrated that light takes up no more than 8′ 7″ in passing from the sun to the earth, adistance of 95,000,000 miles.
Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, through the open screen, down the nave to the western door.[…] At a seemingly immensedistance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
I have never been to Dallas, but I suppose that, like other American cities I know, it has a residential district within easy motoringdistance of the business section and the country club where the affluent have fine houses in large gardens with a handsome view of hill or dale from the living-room windows.
1709,George Berkeley, “[Section] LXXII. Objection Answer’d.”, inAn Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, Dublin:[…] Aaron Rhames,[…], for Jeremy[i.e., Jeremiah] Pepyat,[…],→OCLC,page79:
VVhen from aDiſtance (I ſpeak vvith the Vulgar) vve behold great Objects, the Particles of the intermediate Air and Vapours, vvhich are themſelves unperceivable, do interrupt the Rays of Light, and thereby render the Appearance leſs Strong and Vivid;[…]
The rocks of St. Paul appear from adistance of a brilliantly white colour. This is partly owing to the dung of a vast multitude of seafowl, and partly to a coating of a glossy white substance, which is intimately united to the surface of the rocks.
And every man on board[the ship], waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at adistance, and had known that they delighted to remember him.
Dark and sad were those short autumn days, when all thedistances were shut off, and the air choked with foul brown fog and drenching rains from off the eastern sea;[…]
From adistance, you look like my friend / Even though we are at war / From adistance, I just cannot comprehend / What all this fighting's for //[…] // God is watching us / From adistance
1697,Richard Bentley, “OfPhalaris’s Epistles”, inA Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, and Others; and the Fables of Æsop, London:[…] J. Leake, for Peter Buck,[…],→OCLC,page39:
VVe cannot tell, at thisdiſtance of time, vvhich Converſation vvas firſt, that vvithPhalaris, or that vvithLeon.
I Muſt help my Preface by a Poſtſcript, to tell the Reader, that there is Ten YearsDiſtance betvveen my vvriting the One and the Other; and that (vvhatever I thought then, and have ſomevvhere ſaid, that I vvould publiſh no more Poetry) He vvill find ſeveral Copies of Verſes ſcattered through this Edition, vvhich vvere not printed in the Firſt.
IT is a remarkable fact in the hiſtory of ſcience, that the oldeſt book of Elementary Geometry is ſtill conſidered as the beſt, and that the vvritings ofEuclid, at thediſtance of tvvo thouſand years, continue to form the moſt approved introduction to the mathematical ſciences.
He ſhall in ſtrangeſt, ſtand no farther off, / Then in a politiquediſtance.
a.1716 (date written),[Gilbert] Burnet, “Book II. Of the First Twelve Years of the Reign ofKing Charles II. from the Year 1660 to the Year 1673.”, in[Gilbert Burnet Jr.], editor,Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time.[…], volume I, London:[…] Thomas Ward[…], published1724,→OCLC,pages226–227:
The buſy men inScotland, being encouraged fromRotterdam, vvent about the country, to try if any men of vveight vvould ſet themſelves at the head of their deſigns for an inſurrection. The Earl ofCaſſilis[i.e.,John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis] andLockhart[William Lockhart of Lee] vvere the tvvo perſons they reſolved to try. But they did it at ſo great adiſtance, that, from the propoſition made to them, there vvas no danger of miſpriſion of treaſon.
[William]Page. I haue heard the French-man hath good skill in his Rapier. /[Robert]Shal[low]. Tut ſir: I could haue told you more: In theſe times you ſtand ondiſtance: your Paſſes, Stoccado's, and I knovv not vvhat:[…]
(horse racing) Originally, the space measured back from thewinning post which a racehorserunning in aheat mustreach when thewinner hascovered thewholecourse, in order to run in asubsequent heat; also, the point on the racecourse that space away from the winning post; now, the point on a racecourse 240 yards from the winning post.
THere vvere a Great many Brave, SightlyHorſes vvith Rich Trappings that vvere brought out One day to the Courſe, and OnlyOne Plain Nag in the Company that made ſport for All the reſt. But vvhen they came at laſt to the Tryal,This vvas theHorſe that ran the VVhole Field out ofDiſtance, and VVon the Race. / The MORAL.Our Senſes are No Competent Judges of the Excellencies of the Mind.
They walked along the road; Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared in thedistance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river.
Some Figuresmonſtrous andmiſ-ſhap'd appear, / Conſider'dſingly, or beheld toonear, / VVhich, butproportion'd to theirLight, orPlace, / DueDiſtancereconciles to Form and Grace.
[Julius]Cæſar is ſtill diſpoſed to give us Terms, / And vvaits atDiſtance 'till he hears fromCato.
1799,Thomas Campbell, “The Pleasures of Hope; Part First”, inThe Pleasures of Hope; in Two Parts. With Other Poems, Edinburgh:[…] Mundell & Son; London:Longman & Rees, and J. Wright,[…],→OCLC,page 3, lines5–8:
VVhy do thoſe cliffs of ſhadovvy tint appear / More ſvveet than all the landſcape ſmiling near?— / 'TisDiſtance lends enchantment to the vievv, / And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep itsdistance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge.
He had promised to perform this task, but did not go thedistance.
The state of remoteness or separation in some way other than space or time.
thedistance between a descendant and their ancestor
We’re narrowing thedistance between the two versions of the bill.
The state of people not beingclose,friendly, orintimate with each other; also, the state of people who were once close, friendly, or intimate with each otherno longer being so; estrangement.
[F]oul diſtruſt, and breach / Diſloyal on the part of Man, revolt, / And diſobedience: On the part of Heav'n / Novv alienated,diſtance and diſtaſte, / Anger and juſt rebuke, and judgement giv'n,[…]
In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle—a club, or society, ofhabitués, 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 withdistance and suspicion.
a.1631 (date written),J[ohn] Donne, “To the Countesse of Huntington”, inPoems,[…] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London:[…] M[iles] F[lesher] forJohn Marriot,[…], published1639,→OCLC,page191:
[T]o your eye, / Theſe (Madame) that vvithout yourdiſtance lie, / Muſt either miſt, or nothing ſeeme to be,[…]
1655,Thomas Fuller, “Section II. To Mr. Thomas Bowyer of the Old Jury Merchant.”, inThe Church-history of Britain;[…], London:[…] Iohn Williams[…],→OCLC, book VIII, subsection 33 (Of Those who Died in Prison),page23:
I am not ſatisfied in vvhatdiſtance properly to place theſe perſons. Some, perchance, vvill account it too high, to rank them amongſtMartyrs; and ſurely, I conceive it too lovv, to eſteem them but bareConfeſſours.
Thestate of disagreement or dispute between people;dissension.
Macb[eth]. Both of you knovvBanquo vvas your Enemie. /Murth[erer]. True, my Lord. /Macb. So is he mine: and in ſuch bloodydiſtance, / That euery minute of his being, thruſts / Againſt my neer'ſt of Life:[…]
Generally, the Diuiding and Breaking of all Factions, and Combinations that are aduerſe to the State, and ſetting them atdiſtance, or at leaſt diſtruſt amongſt themſelues, is not one of the vvorſtRemedies.
He tells me, among other things, that this business of the Chancellor do breed a kind of inwarddistance between the King and the Duke of York, and that it cannot be avoided;[…]
[T]he true Reaſon vvhy I did not mention her before, vvas, that I apprehended there vvas ſome littleDiſtance betvveen them, vvhich I hoped to have the Happineſs of accommodating.
[T]hough you ſee / The King is kind, I hope your modeſty / VVill knovv, vvhatdiſtance to the Crovvn is due.
1699,Richard Bentley, “A Dissertation upon the Epistles ofPhalaris”, inA Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris. With an Answer to the Objections of the HonourableCharles Boyle, Esquire, London:[…] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for Henry Mortlock[…], and John Hartley[…],→OCLC,page287:
I vvill not ſift into them too minutely; for I'll obſerve the reſpect anddiſtance that's due to him from hisScholar:[…]
1706 October 9 (Gregorian calendar),Francis Atterbury,A Sermon Preach’d at the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Septemb. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable theLord Mayor.[…], London:[…] E. P.[Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer,[…],→OCLC,page 7:
Third plain Reaſon of the Publick Honours done to the Magiſtrate is, that he may not only be ſecure, but had alſo in due Eſtimation and Reverence by all thoſe vvho are ſubject to him. 'Tis by Reſpect andDiſtance that Authority is upheld; and 'tis by Outvvard Marks and Enſigns of Honour that Reſpect is ſecured; eſpecially from Vulgar Minds, vvhich do not enter into the true Reaſons of Things, but are govern'd by Appearances.
It is not to be thought that, however strange and uncommon I might think her liberal and unreserved communications, a young man of two-and-twenty was likely to be severely critical on a beautiful girl of eighteen, for not observing a properdistance towards him;[…]
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 a subsequent heat; point on the racecourse that space away from the winning post; point on racecourse 240 yards from the winning post
Often followed byfrom: toset (someone or something) at adistance(nounnoun sense 1.1) from someone or something else.
1659,Thomas Fuller, “The Second Book. Of the Conversion of the Saxons, and that which Followed thereupon till the Norman Conquest.”, inThe Appeal of Iniured Innocence: Unto the Religious Learned and Ingenious Reader: In a Controversie betwixt the Animadvertor Dr.Peter Heylyn and the Author Thomas Fuller, London:[…] W. Godbid, and are to be sold by John Williams[…],→OCLC, part II,page 6:
If therefore theInterpoſition ofGloceſterſhirediſtancethVVorceſterſhire fromconfining on theVVeſt-Saxons, theAnimadvertor ought to have vented his diſpleaſure not onMe, but onBede, and[Henry of]Huntington, vvhoſe vvords I exactly tranſlated.
a.1662 (date written),Thomas Fuller, “Lancashire”, inThe History of the Worthies of England, London:[…] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published1662,→OCLC,page106:
The faireſt[oxen] inEngland are bred (or if you vvill, made) in this County, vvith goodly heads, the Tips of vvhoſe horns are ſometimesdiſtancedfive foot aſunder.
That vvhich gives the Relievo to a Bovvl, (may ſome ſay to me) is the quick Light, or the vvhite, vvhich appears to be on the ſide, vvhich is neareſt to us, and the black by conſequencediſtances the Object:[…]
Below you, where the valley widens greenly toward other mountains, which the ripe Italian airdistances with a bloom like that on unplucked grapes, are more arches, ossified arteries of what was once the heart of the world.
Our fleeter steeds havedistanced our attendants; / They lag behind us with a slower pace; / We will await them under the green pendants / Of the great willows in this shady place.
He heard only here and there the ecstatic burst of a mocking-bird's wonderful roulades. Then the horse, with muscles as strong as steel,distanced the sound.
(reflexive) To keep (oneself) away from someone or something, especially because one does notwant to beassociated with that person or thing.
Hedistanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.
1662, Daniel Burston,ΈΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΣΤΗΣ ἐτι ΈΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΖΟΜΕΝΟΣ[ÉUAGGELISTES eti ÉUAGGELIZOMENOS] or, The Evangelist yet Evangelizing.[…], Dublin:[…] John Crook,[…], and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer,[…],→OCLC,page41:
[S]ince the Church hath, and ought to have a Government, it muſt not only be inoffenſive, but moſt proper, to call it an Hierarchy, or holy Government;[…] Beſides,[John] Calvin admitting ofſacrum regimen[holy government], over nicelydiſtanceth himſelf from thoſe vvho call itHierarchy, for he ſaith the ſame in Latin, vvhich they do in Greek;[…]
2017, Abby Green, “Prologue”, inA Christmas Bride for the King, London:Mills & Boon,→ISBN,page 7:
[H]e'd built his life around an independence he'd cultivated as far back as he could remember.Distancing himself from his own family and the heavy legacy of his birth.Distancing himself from painful memories.Distancing himself from emotional entanglements or investment, which could only lead to unbearable heartbreak.
2023 November 1, Philip Haigh, “TPE Must Choose the Right Route to a Brighter Future”, inRail, number995, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire:Bauer Media,→ISSN,→OCLC, page57:
But Gisbydistances himself from calling TPE an inter-city operator.
[H]e is of Opinion it is inhuman, that Animals ſhould be put upon their utmoſt Strength and Metal for our Diverſion only. Hovvever, not to be particular, he puts in for the Queen's Plate every Year, vvith Orders to his Rider never to vvin or bediſtanced;[…]
1642,H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΑ[Psychathanasia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul”, inΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ[Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul,[…], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Roger Daniel, printer to theUniversitie,→OCLC, book 3, canto 1, stanza 21,page61:
The ſunne and all the ſtarres that do appear / She[Psyche] feels them in herſelf, candiſtance all, / For ſhe is at each one purely preſentiall.
Todepart from (a place); toleave (a place) behind.
1873, [Elizabeth Charles], chapter VII, inAgainst the Stream: The Story of an Heroic Age in England[…], volume I, London: Strahan & Co.[…],→OCLC,page139:
[W]e heard the joyous voices sound louder and freer as theydistanced the solemn precincts, scattering frolic and music through the town as they separated to their different homes.
1650,Thomas Fuller, “[The Generall Description of Judea] How the Hebrews Measured Places. Of Their Cubits, Furlongs, Miles and Sabbath-days-journeys.”, inA Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London:[…] J. F. for John Williams[…],→OCLC, book I, paragraph 1,page40:
THe Hebrevvsdiſtanced their places by ſeverall meaſures, ſome arbitrary, caſuall, and uncertain; others certain, as reduced to a conſtant ſtandard. Of the former vvas their meaſuring of land by paces, for vve read, vvhenDavid ſolemnly brought the Ark intoJeruſalem,vvhen he had gone ſix paces he offered oxen and fatlings.
1715,Giacomo Leoni, “Of the Corinthian Order”, in Nicholas Du Bois, transl.,The Architecture ofA[ndrea] Palladio;[…], London:[…] John Watts, for the author,→OCLC,page30:
In the deſign of aColonnade, or ſingle Columns, theInter-columns are tvvo diameters, as in thePortico of St.Maria Rotunda atRome; and this manner ofdiſtancing the Columns is, byVitruvius, call'dSyſtylos.
1992, David S. Freeman, “The Major Systems Involved in the Family Therapy Process”, inMultigenerational Family Therapy, Binghamton, N.Y.; London:The Haworth Press,→ISBN,page66:
When a family member goes outside of the family to deal with a problem, he or shedistances from the family. The family therapist offers the family the opportunity to deal with problems in a way that will allow them to deepen their connections with each other. The therapist will not be able to accomplish this goal if various family members go outside the family to resolve their problems.
2021, Goran Arbanas, “Anxiety and Somatoform Disorders”, in Michal Lew-Starowicz, Annamaria Giraldi, Tillman H. C. Krüger, editors,Psychiatry and Sexual Medicine: A Comprehensive Guide for Clinical Practitioners, Cham, Zug, Switzerland:Springer Nature,→DOI,→ISBN,page272:
Also, due to irritability, tension, startle reactions, and feelings of no future love and enjoyment, the partnersdistance one from another and stop doing things together.[…] The therapeutic relationship with PTSD[post-traumatic stress disorder] patients is very difficult at the beginning of the therapy as these patients will not allow the therapist "to come close to them"—for the same reason as theydistance from their family members and partners (the therapist cannot understand them as she/he has not experienced the same thing they did and they are not good enough to be helped; they believe they destroy every person they come into contact with).
