Dĕpth, n.

n. [From deep, q. v.; Goth. diupitha.]

1. The quality of being deep; deepness; perpendicular measurement downward from the surface, or horizontal measurement backward from the front; as, the depth of a river; the depth of a body of troops.
2. Profundity; obscurity; penetration; poignancy; completeness; abjectness; darkness; lowness; as, depth of knowledge, of musing, of color, of sound, &c.
3. That which is deep; a deep, or the deepest, part or place; the deep; the middle part, as usually the deepest; as, the depth of night, or of winter.

The depth closed me round about. Jonah ii. 5. 4. (Logic.) The number of simple elements which an abstract conception or notion includes; the comprehension or content. Depth of a sail (Naut.), the extent of a square sail from the head-rope to the foot-rope, or the length of the after-leech of a stay-sail or boom-sail;—commonly called the drop of a sail.