An inch is defined as precisely 2 54 centimeters (cm ; there are 100 cm in a meter, 1 cm = 01 m ) 12 inches to a foot, 3 ft to a yard, 5280 ft to a mile, and 6080 ft to a nautical mile The length of a football field is 300 ft or 100 yards
emphasis If someone or something moves inch by inch, they move very slowly and carefully. The car moved forward inch by inch. A small island. to move very slowly in a particular direction, or to make something do this. Unit of measure equal to 1/36 yard and since 1959 defined officially as
a measurement unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2 54 centimeters, abbreviation is in ; (2) to move the printing action of a press or other equipment slowly or in small increments for adjustment
A unit of length The inch may have originally been defined as the width of a person's thumb (pressed down) at the base of the nail H Arthur Klein, in The World of Measurement (p 54) quotes a proclamation attributed to King David I of Scotland (about 1150 C E )
One inch (1") is 25 4mm The inch is the commonly used measure in electronics, mostly 1/10" or 1/20" of distance is found for pin distances of components
To inch somewhere or to inch something somewhere means to move there very slowly and carefully, or to make something do this. a climber inching up a vertical wall of rock He inched the van forward An ambulance inched its way through the crowd
emphasis If you say that someone looks every inch a certain type of person, you are emphasizing that they look exactly like that kind of person. He looks every inch the City businessman
54 cm (see metre). David I of Scotland ( 1150) defined the inch as the breadth of a man's thumb at the base of the nail; usually the thumb breadths of three men one small, one medium, and one large were added and then divided by three. During the reign of England's Edward II, the inch was defined as "three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise." At various times it has also been defined as the combined lengths of 12 poppy seeds. See also foot; International System of Units; measurement; metric system
It was also formerly divided into twelve parts, called lines, and originally into three parts, called barleycorns, its length supposed to have been determined from three grains of barley placed end to end lengthwise