ligne

American  

[leen, leen-y^uh] / lin, ˈlin jə /

noun

• lignes
  plural

1. (in Swiss watchmaking) a unit equal to 0.0888 inch or 2.2558 millimeters, divided into 12 douziemes: used mainly to gauge the thickness of a movement.

2. line.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lignes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ligne

< French: line ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ligne lignes

Then there was the look of the movie: the challenge of turning Hergé's famous ligne claire into a three-dimensional world that actors could walk around in.

From Time ● Oct. 31, 2011

Hergé drew his panels in an elegant, instantly recognizable style that has been so influential, it has acquired a name: ligne claire, or clear line.

From Time ● Oct. 31, 2011

That he should write to a woman at all, on the subjects of the letter, involved a compliment hors ligne; that he should write with this ease, this abandonment, was indeed remarkable.

From Lady Rose's Daughter by Mrs. Humphry Ward

Helvetius not en première ligne, because his forme was not up to the mark.

From Correspondence & Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859, Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Chaucer notices its bitterness only— "The woful teres that they leten falle As bittre weren, out of teres kynde, For peyne, as is ligne Aloes or galle."

From The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

Its curves and ovals and circles are annoying after the lignes droites and the right angles and the broderies of the French variety.

From Royal Palaces and Parks of France by Blanche McManus

Medal for General Morgan, of twenty-four lignes in diameter.

From The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 by Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart

The French term, fuyante or lignes fuyantes, or going-away lines, is more expressive; and point de fuite, instead of vanishing point, is much better.

From The Theory and Practice of Perspective by G. A. (George Adolphus) Storey