measure
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛʒ.ə/
ipa: /ˈmɛʒ.ɚ/
ipa: /ˈmeɪ.ʒɚ/
ipa: /ˈmɪ.ʒɚ/
ipa: /ˈmeʒ.ə/
ipa: /ˈmeʒ.ə/
ipa: /ˈmeɪ.ʒə/
ipa: /ˈmɛʃʊɹ/
rhymes: -ɛʒə(ɹ)
Forms: form: measures
Etymology: From Middle English mesure, from Old French mesure, from Latin mēnsūra (“a measure”), mētior (“to measure”, supine stem in mēns-) + -tūra. Largely displaced native Old English metan ("to measure" whence modern mete) and ġemet (“a measure”).
Senses: examples: text: I will correct thee in measure, and will not leaue thee altogether vnpunished.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 30::
glosses: A prescribed quantity or extent.
Moderation, temperance.
examples: text: Mom's rage has no measure.
text: Full to the utmost measure of what bliss Human desires can seek or apprehend.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: but there is never found a foolish man who knows the measure of his stomach
ref: 2005, J Coarguo, Hávamál: The Words of the High One a Personal Interpretation:
text: They have gloried to this day, the tedious interminable big-screen replays of that golden summer irritating beyond measure.
ref: 25 August 2009, Mike Selvey, The Guardian:
glosses: A prescribed quantity or extent.
A limit that cannot be exceeded; a bound. (Now chiefly in set phrases.)
examples: text: It ended up being a bittersweet night for England, full of goals to send the crowd home happy, buoyed by the news that Montenegro and Poland had drawn elsewhere in Group H but also with a measure of regret about what happened to Danny Welbeck and what it means for Roy Hodgson's team going into a much more difficult assignment against Ukraine.
ref: 6 September 2013, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian:
glosses: A prescribed quantity or extent.
An (unspecified) portion or quantity.
examples: text: a measure of salt
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A receptacle or vessel of a standard size, capacity etc. as used to deal out specific quantities of some substance.
examples: text: Honesty is the true measure of a man.
text: City were also the victors on that occasion 56 years ago, winning 5-0, but this visit was portrayed as a measure of their progress against the 19-time champions.
ref: 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1-6 Man City”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A standard against which something can be judged; a criterion.
examples: text: The villagers paid a tithe of a thousand measures of corn.
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
Any of various standard units of capacity.
examples: text: The fragments shrank by increments of about three kilodaltons (a measure of molecular weight).
ref: 1993, Scientific American, February 33.3:
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A unit of measurement.
examples: text: The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 11:9:
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
The size of someone or something, as ascertained by measuring. (Now chiefly in make to measure.)
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
The act or process of measuring.
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A ruler, measuring stick, or graduated tape used to take measurements.
examples: text: coal measures; lead measures
text: For many years the coal measures on the shores of Lough Allen were worked only in the most primitive fashion, and the coal was transported laboriously in the inevitable ass carts of the Irish peasant.
ref: 1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 339:
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A bed or stratum.
examples: the greatest common measure of two or more numbers
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A number which is contained in a given number a number of times without a remainder; a divisor or factor.
topics: mathematics
measure-theory
sciences
glosses: The act or result of measuring.
A function which obeys a particular set of formal conditions, created to generalize and rigorize the notions of length, volume, and probability. Formally, a non-negative, countably additive set function on a sigma-algebra; see Measure (mathematics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
glosses: Metrical rhythm.
A melody.
examples: text: He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,— / "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.
ref: 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Fifth. The Court.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XII (Lochinvar. Lady Heron’s Song.), page 259:
text: They danced on silently, softly. Their feet played tricks to the beat of the tireless measure, that exquisitely asinine blare which is England's punishment for having lost America.
ref: 1922, Michael Arlen, “2/2/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
glosses: Metrical rhythm.
A dance.
examples: a poem in iambic measure
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
poetry
publishing
writing
glosses: Metrical rhythm.
The manner of ordering and combining the quantities, or long and short syllables; meter; rhythm; hence, a metrical foot.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Metrical rhythm.
A musical designation consisting of all notes and or rests delineated by two vertical bars; an equal and regular division of the whole of a composition; a bar.
examples: text: The president said the measures involve a ban on all visitors to the country via all ports of entry who aren't residents or diplomats. El Salvadorans or residents who return to El Salvador will be quarantined for 30 days..
ref: 2020 March 12, “It's coronavirus-free, but El Salvador is banning all foreign travellers”, in The Straits Times:
glosses: A course of action.
Actions designed to achieve some purpose; plans.
examples: text: The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.
ref: 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
glosses: A course of action.
A piece of legislation.
Synonyms: sense: musical designation
word: bar
sense: unit of measurement
word: metric
Hyponyms: Borel measure
complete measure
complex measure
counting measure
Lebesgue measure
positive measure
signed measure
σ-finite measure
Derived terms: above measure
beyond measure
bimeasure
biomeasure
bushel measure
butter measure
by any measure
commeasure
complete measure
complex measure
countermeasure
counting measure
dry measure
fluid measure
for good measure
fuzzy measure
gentleman's measure
Gibbs measure
half measure
half-measure
hypermeasure
immeasurate
in a measure
in equal measure
in no small measure
last full measure
Lebesgue measure
liquid measure
long measure
made-to-measure
man is the measure of all things
measurage
measurebate
measure for measure
measureless
measure of central tendency
measure of location
measure space
measure stick
measure theory
measure word
outer measure
positive measure
poulter's measure
premeasure
probability measure
pseudomeasure
quasimeasure
Radon measure
semimeasure
short measure
strike measure
struck measure
supermeasure
tape measure
the measure of a man
time-bound measure
tread a measure
unit of measure
weight measure
weights and measures
Winchester measure
σ-finite measure