The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fathom \Fath"om\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fathomed; p. pr. & vb. n. Fathoming.]
To encompass with the arms extended or encircling; to measure by throwing the arms about; to span. [Obs.]
--Purchas.-
To measure by a sounding line; especially, to sound the depth of; to penetrate, measure, and comprehend; to get to the bottom of.
--Dryden.The page of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and commonplace, only because I had not fathomed its deeper import.
--Hawthotne.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of fathom English)
Usage examples of "fathoming".
So we sages conferred without the little symbionts, fathoming each other by word and gesture alone.
Of all species left on Jijo when the ancient Buyur departed, Dwer found noor the least fathomable, and fathoming other creatures was a hunter's art.
Patient beyond human fathoming, gentle in a way that gave Dwer nightmares to hear of it, she had taken an entire year to winnow the band, one by one, painlessly confiscating from each member its precious life bone, until all that remained was a solitary male elder, whom she seized and brought home to testify, ferrying the dejected captive in a boat piled high with the fifth vertebra of all his kin.
Mister Heinz says no one on the Slope has any hope at all of fathoming it.
Of all species left on Jijo when the ancient Buyur departed, Dwer found noor the least fathomable, and fathoming other creatures was a hunter’s art.
He gave no sign of ambitions beyond the building of a science of “history” --all the while envisioning not the mere fathoming of the past, but in fact the prediction of the future.
He was still having a hard time fathoming that Drustan had known he was dark all this time.
How her husband hoped to draw out Robert MacAllister with all of these men looming around was beyond her fathoming capabilities.
Too many other contestants, able to work on the problem with full information from the outset, were fathoming the pattern and gaining their ships.