mile

mile

W1S1 [maıl] n

[: Old English; Origin: mil, from Latin milia passum 'thousands of paces']

1.) written abbreviation m

a unit for measuring distance, equal to 1760 ↑yards or about 1609 metres

▪ It's forty miles from here to the Polish border.

▪ an area 50 miles wide and 150 miles long

▪ We walked about half a mile .

▪ He was driving at 70 miles per hour .

2.) the mile

a race that is a mile in length

▪ the first man to run the mile in under four minutes

3.) miles informal

a very long distance

miles from

▪ We were miles from home, and very tired.

miles away

▪ You can't go to Portsmouth, it's miles away.

for miles

▪ You can see for miles from here.

▪ They lived in a little cottage miles from anywhere (=a long way from the nearest town) .

4.) go the extra mile

to try a little harder in order to achieve something, after you have already used a lot of effort

▪ The president expressed his determination to go the extra mile for peace.

5.) stick out/stand out a mile informal

to be very easy to see or notice

▪ It sticks out a mile that you're new here.

6.) can see/spot/tell sth a mile off informal

if you can see something a mile off, it is very easy to notice

▪ You can tell a mile off that he likes you.

7.) be miles away

spoken to not be paying attention to anything that is happening around you

▪ 'Kate!' 'Sorry, I was miles away!'

8.) miles older/better/too difficult etc

BrE informal very much older, better, too difficult etc

= ↑loads

▪ The second film's miles better.

9.) by a mile informal

by a very large amount

▪ He was the best player on the pitch by a mile.

10.) miles out

BrE informal a measurement, guess, or calculation that is miles out is completely wrong

11.) join the mile high club informal

to have sex in a plane

→↑nautical mile,run a mile at ↑run¹ (38)