LINE OF DEFENCE. In fortification, the face of a work receiving flank defence, together with its prolongation to the flanking work.
LINE OF DEMARCATION. A line which is drawn by consent, to ascertain the limits of territories belonging to different powers.
LINE OF LINE. See [Gunter's Line].
LINE-OF-METAL ELEVATION. That which the axis of a gun has above the object when its line of metal is pointed on the latter; it averages 11⁄2° in guns of the old construction.
LINE OF NODES. The imaginary line joining the ascending and descending nodes of the orbit of a planet or comet.
LINE OF OPERATIONS. In strategy, the line an army follows to attain its objective point.
LINE OUT STUFF. To mark timber for dressing to shape.
LINERS. Line-of-battle ships. Also, a designation of such packet or passenger ships as trade periodically and regularly to and from ports beyond sea, in contradistinction to chance vessels. Also, a term applied by seamen to men-of-war and to their crews.
LINES. With shipwrights, are the various plans for determining the shape and form of the ship's body on the mould-loft floor. Also, a species of field-works, consisting of a series of fronts, constructed in order to cover the front and form the immediate defence of an army or the frontiers of a state.
LINES OF FLOTATION. Those horizontal marks supposed to be described by the surface of the water on the bottom of a ship, and which are exhibited at certain depths upon the sheer-draught. (See [Light Water-line], and [Load Water-line].)