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Webster 1828 Edition

Adj.

Shortest; most direct; as the nearest way to London. So we use nearer for shorter. [The use of these words is not correct, but very common.]

nearest

Closest to, superlative form of near: most near.
- 1843, Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold-Bug:
  Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the peg and thence further unrolled it, in the direction already established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the distance of fifty feet […]

nearest