Definition of "ell"

At certain times in the ice-mountains of Switzerland there happen cracks which have shewn the great thickness of the ice, as some of these cracks have measured three or four hundred ells deep.

1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 51

A homely proverb recognises the existence of a troublesome class of persons who, having an inch conceded them, will take an ell.

1841, Charles Dickens, chapter XXX, in Barnaby Rudge

Berkhyas is described as being a mountain in size, his face black, his body covered with hair, his neck like that of a dragon, two boar's tusks from his mouth, his eyes wells of blood, his hair bristling like needles, his height 140 ells, his breadth 17, pigeons nestling in his snaky locks.

1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 19

If he had imputed to them conditions it was all his own doing: it came from his inveterate habit of abysmal imputation, the snatching of the ell wherever the inch peeped out, without which where would have been the tolerability of life?

1910, Henry James, The Finer Grain

I have drunk en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar from the ef-ell-oh-doubleyou-ee-ar-ess in his gee-ay-ar-dee-ee-en many a time.

2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170

I could hear them snapping and tearing around, and then one managed to get on the roof by jumping from the low ell.

1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 4, in The Whisperer in Darkness