Definition of "space"

(heading) Of time.

1. (now rare, archaic) Free time; leisure, opportunity.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Come on, thou are granted ſpace.

     c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i], page 245, column 2

   • In two days hence / The Judge of life and death aſcends his ſeat. / —This will afford him ſpace to reach the camp […].

     1793, Henry Boyd, “The Royal Message”, in Poems‎, Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, page 408

2. A specific (specified) period of time.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • I pray you, sirs, to take some cheers the while I go for a moment's space to my poor afflicted child.

     1893, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Giles Corey

   • The match was lost, though, in the space of just twenty minutes or so.

     2007 October 20, Andy Bull, “We wozn't robbed!”, in The Guardian‎

   • But their lead lasted just 10 minutes before Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe both headed home in the space of two minutes to wrestle back control.

     2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport

3. An undefined period of time (without qualifier, especially a short period); a while.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Even Comrade Butt cast off his gloom for a space and immersed his whole being in scrambled eggs.

     1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979

(heading) Unlimited or generalized extent, physical or otherwise.

1. Distance between things.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • But neere him, thy Angell / Becomes a feare: as being o're-powr'd, therefore / Make ſpace enough betweene you.

     c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii], page 347, column 2

   • Which means that for every car there was 10 years ago, there are now 40. Which means - and this is my own, not totally scientific, calculation - that the space between cars on the roads in 1991 was roughly 39 car lengths, because today there is no space at all.

     2001 November 3, Sam Wollaston, “Russian around”, in The Guardian‎

2. Physical extent across two or three dimensions (sometimes for or to do something).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • O God, I could be bounded in a nutſhell, and / count my ſelfe a King of infinite ſpace; were it not that / I haue bad dreames.

     c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii], page 364, column 1

   • They also wanted a larger garden and more space for home working.

     2007 May 12, Dominic Bradbury, “Lost and found - an artist's voyage from city to country”, in The Guardian‎

3. Physical extent in all directions, seen as an attribute of the universe (now usually considered as a part of space-time), or a mathematical model of this.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Space is the Phantasme of a Thing existing without the Mind simply.

     1656, Thomas Hobbes, Elements of Philosophy, section II

   • These are not questions which can be decided by reference to our space intuitions, for our intuitions are confined to Euclidean space, and even there are insufficient, approximative.

     1880 August, Popular Science

   • The early results from Gravity Probe B, one of Nasa's most complicated satellites, confirmed yesterday 'to a precision of better than 1 per cent' the assertion Einstein made 90 years ago - that an object such as the Earth does indeed distort the fabric of space and time.

     2007 April 15, Anushka Asthana, David Smith, The Observer

4. The near-vacuum in which planets, stars and other celestial objects are situated; the universe beyond the earth's atmosphere.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • How firſt began this Heav'n which we behold / Diſtant ſo high, with moving Fires adornd / Innumerable, and this which yeelds or fills / All ſpace, the ambient Aire wide interfus'd / Imbracing round this florid Earth, […]

     1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 86–90

   • After all, to go into outer space is not so much worse, if at all, than a polar expedition.

     1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901

   • The human race must colonise space within the next two centuries or it will become extinct, Stephen Hawking warned today.

     2010 August 9, Stephen Hawking, quotee, “Stephen Hawking: mankind must colonise space or die out”, in The Guardian‎

5. The physical and psychological area one needs within which to live or operate; personal freedom.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Around the time of my parents' divorce, I learned that reading could also give me space.

     1996, Linda Brodkey, Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only

   • "I care about you Billy, whether you believe it or not; but right now I need my space."

     2008, Jimmy Treigle, Walking on Water

(heading) A bounded or specific extent, physical or otherwise.

1. A (chiefly empty) area or volume with set limits or boundaries.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

     1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

   • The street door was open, and we entered a narrow space with washing facilities, curtained off from the courtyard.

     2000, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender

   • Converted from vast chambers beneath the old Bankside Power Station which once held a million gallons of oil, the new public areas consist of two large circular spaces for performances and film installations, plus a warren of smaller rooms.

     2012 July 16, Charlotte Higgins, “Tate Modern unlocks Tanks – and introduces live art into mainstream”, in The Guardian‎

2. (music) A position on the staff or stave bounded by lines.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The note next above Sol is La; La, therefore, stands in the 2nd space; Si, on the 3rd line, &c.

     1849, Guillaume Louis Bocquillon-Wilhem, translated by John Pyke Hullah, Wilhelm's Method of Teaching Singing

   • The lines and spaces of the staff are named according to the first seven letters of the alphabet, that is, A B C D E F G.

     1990, Sammy Nzioki, Music Time

3. A gap in text between words, lines etc., or a digital character used to create such a gap.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • According to experts, a single line of text should rarely exceed about 50 characters (including letters and all the spaces between words).

     1992, Sam H Ham, Environmental Interpretation

   • It should be typed a space below the salutation : Dear Sir, Subject : Replacement of defective items.

     2005, Dr BR Kishore, Dynamic Business Letter Writing

4. (letterpress typography) A piece of metal type used to separate words, cast lower than other type so as not to take ink, especially one that is narrower than one en (compare quad).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • If it be only a Single Letter or two that drops, he thruſts the end of his Bodkin between every Letter of that Word, till he comes to a Space: and then perhaps by forcing thoſe Letters closer, he may have room to put in another Space or a Thin Space; which if he cannot do, and he finds the Space ſtand Looſe in the Form; he with the Point of his Bodkin picks the Space up and bows it a little; which bowing makes the Letters on each ſide of the Space keep their parallel diſtance; for by its Spring it thruſts the Letters that were cloſed with the end of the Bodkin to their adjunct Letters, that needed no cloſing.

     1683, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: Or, the Doctrine of Handy-Works. Applied to the art of Printing.‎, volume 2, pages 240–1

   • Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.

     1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, page 110

   • Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.

     2005, Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd edition, page 91

5. A gap; an empty place.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Mainstream Hollywood would not cater to the taste for sexual sensation, which left a space for B-movies, including noir.

     2004, Harry M Benshoff, editor, Queer Cinéma

   • A horizontal scar filled the space on her chest where her right breast used to be.

     2009, Barbara L. Lev, From Pink to Green

6. (geometry) A set of points, each of which is uniquely specified by a number (the dimensionality) of coordinates.  examples

7. (countable, mathematics) A generalized construct or set whose members have some property in common; typically there will be a geometric metaphor allowing these members to be viewed as "points". Often used with a restricting modifier describing the members (e.g. vector space), or indicating the inventor of the construct (e.g. Hilbert space).  examples

8. (countable, figuratively) A field, area, or sphere of activity or endeavour.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • CNBC has shown a greater commitment to the crypto space than most other mainstream outlets, providing daily updates on bitcoin or other very large cryptocurrencies.

     2019, Ryan Derousseau, The Everything Guide to Investing in Cryptocurrency […] , Simon and Schuster, page 269

   • [T]hey became responsible for managing aspects of civilian labour in the medical space, and their roles were contrasted with those of the female physiotherapists in the hospital.

     2020, Alexia Moncrieff, Expertise, Authority and Control, Cambridge University Press, page 187

9. Anything analogous to a physical space in which one can interact, such as an online chat room.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Communication in Internet chat spaces allows participants to communicate so freely in the relative safety of anonymity that they forget their privacy.

     2007, Jacob van Kokswijk, Digital Ego: Social and Legal Aspects of Virtual Identity, page 88

(obsolete, intransitive) To roam, walk, wander.  quotations

(transitive) To set some distance apart.  examples

To insert or utilise spaces in a written text.  examples

(transitive, science fiction) To eject into outer space, usually without a space suit.  quotations  examples

(intransitive, science fiction) To travel into and through outer space.  quotations  examples