Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One of the many small hard dermal or epidermal structures that characteristically form the external covering of fishes and reptiles and certain mammals, such as pangolins.
- noun A similar part in other animals, such as one of the thin flat overlapping structures that cover the wings of butterflies and moths.
- noun A small, thin, often flattened plant structure, such as one of the modified leaves that cover a tree bud or one of the structures that contain the reproductive organs on the cones of a conifer.
- noun A dry thin flake of epidermis shed from the skin.
- noun A skin lesion or lesions marked by such flakes.
- noun A scale insect.
- noun A plant disease or infestation caused by scale insects.
- noun A flaky oxide film formed on a metal, as on iron, that has been heated to high temperatures.
- noun A flake of rust.
- noun A hard mineral coating that forms on the inside surface of boilers, kettles, and other containers in which water is repeatedly heated.
- intransitive verb To clear or strip of scale or scales.
- intransitive verb To remove in layers or scales.
- intransitive verb To cover with scales; encrust.
- intransitive verb To throw (a thin flat object) so that it soars through the air or skips along the surface of water.
- intransitive verb Dentistry To remove (tartar) from tooth surfaces with a pointed instrument.
- intransitive verb To cheat; swindle.
- intransitive verb To ride on (a tram, for example) without paying the fare.
- intransitive verb To come off in scales or layers; flake.
- intransitive verb To become encrusted.
- noun A system of ordered marks at fixed intervals used as a reference standard in measurement.
- noun An instrument or device bearing such marks.
- noun A standard of measurement or judgment; a criterion.
- noun A proportion used in determining the dimensional relationship of a representation to that which it represents.
- noun A calibrated line, as on a map or an architectural plan, indicating such a proportion.
- noun Proper proportion.
- noun A progressive classification, as of size, amount, importance, or rank.
- noun A relative level or degree.
- noun A minimum wage fixed by contract.
- noun Mathematics A system of notation in which the values of numerical expressions are determined by their places relative to the chosen base of the system.
- noun Music An ascending or descending collection of pitches proceeding by a specified scheme of intervals.
- intransitive verb To climb up or over; ascend.
- intransitive verb To make in accord with a particular proportion or scale.
- intransitive verb To alter according to a standard or by degrees; adjust in calculated amounts.
- intransitive verb To estimate or measure the quantity of lumber in (logs or uncut trees).
- intransitive verb To climb; ascend.
- intransitive verb To rise in steps or stages.
- noun An instrument or machine for weighing.
- noun Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance.
- intransitive verb To weigh with a scale.
- intransitive verb To have a given weight, as determined by a scale.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To weigh in or as in scales; measure; compare; estimate.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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For example: ten spaces on the vernier being made equal to nine on the scale, each vernier space is one tenth less than a scale space; and if the first line or division of the vernier agree exactly with any line of the scale, the next line of the vernier must be one tenth of a tenth (or one hundredth) of an inch from agreement with the next _scale_ division; the following vernier line must be two hundredths out, and so on: therefore, the number of such differences (from the next tenth on the scale) at which a vernier line agrees with a scale line, when set, is the number of hundredths to be added to the said tenth; (in a common barometer, reading only to hundredths of an inch).
Barometer and Weather Guide Robert Fitzroy 1835
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But until then, the pain scale is all we have and should be used for legal purposes.
Matthew Yglesias » Marc Thiessen: Obama is Too Good at Killing Terrorists 2010
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The set, smaller in scale, is a progressively decaying wonder that is intact as is La Follie's megalomaniacal attention-grabbing theatrics.
Swamp Thing 2007
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The set, smaller in scale, is a progressively decaying wonder that is intact as is La Follie's megalomaniacal attention-grabbing theatrics.
Archive 2007-08-01 2007
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However, as I began this part of the argument with, the century time scale is short for chaotic transitions in something as highly inertial as the climate system, and it is quite non-chaotic, and in a sense boring and predictable, when you only run these models 100 years.
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However, as I began this part of the argument with, the century time scale is short for chaotic transitions in something as highly inertial as the climate system, and it is quite non-chaotic, and in a sense boring and predictable, when you only run these models 100 years.
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Conducting a referendum on this scale is a huge challenge and will take a lot of planning and time - which is rapidly running out.
Louis Belanger: Time running out on Sudan as Security Council visits Louis Belanger 2010
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Conducting a referendum on this scale is a huge challenge and will take a lot of planning and time - which is rapidly running out.
Louis Belanger: Time running out on Sudan as Security Council visits Louis Belanger 2010
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The other scale is the growing unity of conservatism … not necessarily republicans, but those that want, in summary, for America to remain America … complete with traditional ways of life, values, and morals ….
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Conducting a referendum on this scale is a huge challenge and will take a lot of planning and time - which is rapidly running out.
Louis Belanger: Time running out on Sudan as Security Council visits Louis Belanger 2010
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Bailenson – along with Jeff Hancock, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab; Géraldine Fauville, former postdoctoral researcher at the VHIL; Mufan Luo; graduate student at Stanford; and Anna Queiroz, postdoc at VHIL – responded by devising the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale, or ZEF Scale, to help measure how much fatigue people are experiencing in the workplace from videoconferencing.
Four causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their solutions | Stanford News Stanford University 2022
Prolagus commented on the word scale
First a mother bathes her child, then the other way around
The scales always find a way to level out.
(If the brakeman turns my way, by Bright Eyes)
October 15, 2009