Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British Variant of caliber.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See caliber.
Wiktionary
- n. Diameter of the bore of a firearm, typically measured between opposite lands.
- n. The diameter of round or cylindrical body, as of a bullet, a projectile, or a column.
- n. A nominal name for a cartridge type, which may not exactly indicate its true size and may include other measurements such as cartridge length or black powder capacity. Eg 7.62x39 or 38.40.
- n. Unit of measure used to express the length of the bore of a weapon. The number of calibres is determined by dividing the length of the bore of the weapon, from the breech face of the tube to the muzzle, by the diameter of its bore. A gun tube the bore of which is 40 feet (480 inches) long and 12 inches in diameter is said to be 40 calibers long.
- n. figuratively Relative size, importance, magnitude.
- n. figuratively Capacity or compass of mind.
- n. dated : Degree of importance or station in society.
WordNet 3.0
- n. diameter of a tube or gun barrel
- n. a degree or grade of excellence or worth
Etymologies
- From French calibre ("bore of a gun, size, capacity (literally, and figuratively), also weight"). Origin uncertain, perhaps, from Latin qua libra ("of what dimensions, weight") (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Only a certain calibre of A-lister can get away with it and Eto'o largely does.”
The Guardian: Samuel Eto'o's deadly form for Inter could spell trouble for Tottenham
“The acting, while not of award calibre, is more than adequate to tell the storywhile the soundtrack is outstanding.”
“There was no doubt that there was a shortage of dan grades, but dan grades of the standard of the Hut took men of a certain calibre and a long time.”
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“The average businessman of the right calibre is not prepared to give up the pleasure and flexibility of private employment to serve and administer a fund that has political strings attached to it.”
Peace Through InvestmentA challenge to the Capitalist Countries
“Our mental calibre is much weaker than it was but I suppose that is the normal process of disintegration.”
“The guns known as breechloading rifles are from three inches to fourteen inches in calibre, that is, across the bore, and in length from twelve to over sixty feet.”
“Meantime stone projectiles were replaced by cast iron shot, which, owing to its greater density, necessitated a reduction in calibre, that is a narrowing of the bore, consequently lighter and smaller guns came into the field, but with”
“I cater to a large number of people of a certain calibre.”
“Using a free converter application (and ebook manager) called calibre you can quickly convert PDF (and other file formats) to. epub files, which you can then transfer to your iPad for reading in iBooks.”
“The acting is of the highest calibre, which is only to be expected when you have Cate”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calibre’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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simple & useful 17
lurid, idiomatically, lachrymosity, mezzanine, ellipsis, vituperatively, iniquitous, ghastly, recherché, effervesce, arrears, humbugged and 82 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for calibre.
jmjarmstrong JM is interested in becoming a human cannonball but wonders if he’s the right calibre. May 25, 2011