meter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or the number of syllables in a line.
2. n. A particular arrangement of words in poetry, such as iambic pentameter, determined by the kind and number of metrical units in a line.
3. n. The rhythmic pattern of a stanza, determined by the kind and number of lines.
4. n. Music Division into measures or bars.
5. n. Music A specific rhythm determined by the number of beats and the time value assigned to each note in a measure.
6. n. The international standard unit of length, approximately equivalent to 39.37 inches. It was redefined in 1983 as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. See Table at measurement.
7. n. Any of various devices designed to measure time, distance, speed, or intensity or indicate and record or regulate the amount or volume, as of the flow of a gas or an electric current.
8. n. A postage meter.
9. n. A parking meter.
10. v. To measure with a meter: meter a flow of water.
11. v. To supply in a measured or regulated amount: metered the allotted gasoline to each vehicle.
12. v. To imprint with postage or other revenue stamps by means of a postage meter or similar device: metering bulk mail.
13. v. To provide with a parking meter or parking meters: meter parking spaces.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who measures; a measurer: as, a coal-meter; a land-meter.
2. n. That which measures, or is used for measuring; specifically, an instrument that records or indicates automatically the quantity, force, or pressure of a fluid passing through it or actuating it: used in composition, as in gas-meter, water-meter (see these words), or alone when the fluid to be measured, as gas or water, is understood.
3. n. In fishing, one of the two reinforcing ropes of a seine or gill-net, of which one is attached to the upper edge and carries the floats, and the other to the lower edge and bears the weights or sinkers
4. To measure by means of a meter; test by the use of a meter.
5. n. Rhythm in language; rhythmic language as measurable by prosodic times or uttered syllables; more specifically, arrangement of language in a succession of rhythmic movements, readily appreciable as such by the ear; verse, as opposed to prose. Meter in this sense is the subject-matter of the science of metrics
6. n. Measured verse or rhythmic language; rhythmic language as determined by or divided into fixed measures. A measure, foot, or dipody. See measure. [Rare.] A line, verse, or period in ancient metrics; specifically, a monocolic verse or a di-colic (or tricolic)period, as opposed to ahypermetron. Meters are called monometers, dimeters, trimeters, etc., according to the number of measures in a verse, also acatalectic, catalectic, brachycatalectic, etc., meters, according to the completeness or incompleteness of the feet or measures. A kind of verse; a particular variety of poetic rhythm, as expressed by the kind of feet of which the verse consists : as, iambic, dactylic, Ionic meter; a particular form of metrical composition: as, Alcaic meter, elegiac meter. In ancient metrics meters were called monoid, pure, or simple meters when they consisted of one kind of foot throughout, compound or episynthetic meters when composed of cola of different kinds of feet, mixed meters when uniting different kinds of feet within the same colon.
7. n. In music, the division of a composition into parts of equal time-value and of similar essential rhythmic structure. The smallest part thus indicated is that between successive primary accents, and is called a measure; in printed music this is marked by a bar before each primary accent. But meter includes also, in a general way, the division of a piece into equal and similar parts of more than one measure, such parts being called phrases or strophes. In this sense musical meter has obvious analogies with meter in verse, though the analogies cannot always be pressed with safety, especially as the nomenclature is not strictly parallel. (See metrics, 2.) Rhythm, may be distinguished from meter in that it deals primarily with the accents and the typical and actual accentual patterns, which meter gathers into groups and sections in accordance with their timevalue. This distinction, however, is not always observed or even acknowledged. Sometimes the meaning of the term is reversed, rhythm being made a matter of time, and meter one of accent. Sometimes, too, the two terms are made entirely interchangeable.
8. n. In Eng. hymnology, a pattern of versification, including the structure of the prosodical feet used, the grouping of those feet into lines, and the grouping of lines into stanzas or strophes, popularly called verses. See foot and versification. According to the kind of feet used, meters are usually either iambic, trochaic, or dactylic. The principal iambic meters are: Common Meter (C. M.), having alternately eight and six syllables to the line; Long Meter (L M.), having eight syllables to the line; and Short Meter (S. M.), having two lines of six syllables, followed by one of eight, and then by another of six. Each of these meters has properly four lines to the stanza, so that their syllabic scheme is as follows: C. M., 8, 6, 8, 6; L. M., 8, 8, 8, 8; S. M., 6, 6, 8, 6. Each of them may also be doubled, so as to make eight-lined stanzas, the meter then being called Common Meter Double (C. M. D.), Long Meter Double (L. M. D.), or Short Meter Double (S. M. D.). Long meter may also have six lines to the stanza, and is then called Long Meter, Six Lines, or Long Particular Meter (L. P. M.), with the syllabic scheme 8, 8, 8. 8, 8, 8. Other meters of this class are Common Particular Meter (C. P. M.), 8, 8, 6, 8, 8, 6; Short Particular Meter (S. P. M.), 6, 6, 8, 6, 6, 8; Hallelujah Meter (H. M.), 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8 (or 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4); Sevens and Sixes, 7, 6, 7, 6; Tens, 10, 10, 10, 10; etc. The principal trochaic meters are Sevens, 7, 7, 7, 7; Eights and Sevens, 8, 7, 8, 7; Sixes, 6, 6, 6; 6 Sixes and Fives, 6, 5, 6, 5; etc. The principal dactylic meters are Elevens, 11, 11, 11, 11; Elevens and Tens, 11, 10, 11, 10; etc. Numerous modifications of these schemes occur, especially in recent hymns
9. n. The fundamental unit of length of the French metrical system. It is the distance, at the melting-temperature of ice, between the ends of a certain platinum bar preserved in paris, and called the mètre des Archives. It was intended to be one ten-millionth part of the earth's meridian quadrant, and to be 443.296 lines of the toise of Peru, from which it really differs by a very small amount. The meter is equal to 39.37027 inches according to Professor Rogers, and to 39.36985 inches according to General Comstock. A new meter has been established by the principal nations, which is defined by the length at the melting-point of ice between two lines drawn on a bar of pla-tiniridium, which is to be kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at the pavilion de Breteuil near Sèvres, France. This new meter is to be as nearly as possible of the same length as the old one. Abbreviated masculine
10. n. In photography, an instrument for determining the time of exposure.

Wiktionary

1. n. A device that measures things.
2. n. A parking meter.
3. n. (elsewhere metre) The base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299792458 second.
4. n. an increment of music; the overall rhythm; particularly, the number of beats in a measure.
5. n. The rhythm pattern in a poem.
6. v. To measure with a metering device.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who, or that which, metes or measures. See coal-meter.
2. n. An instrument for measuring, and usually for recording automatically, the quantity measured.
3. n. A line above or below a hanging net, to which the net is attached in order to strengthen it.
4. n. Rhythmical arrangement of syllables or words into verses, stanzas, strophes, etc.; poetical measure, depending on number, quantity, and accent of syllables; rhythm; measure; verse; also, any specific rhythmical arrangements
5. n. A poem.
6. n. A measure of length, equal to 39.37 English inches, the standard of linear measure in the metric system of weights and measures. It was intended to be, and is very nearly, the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the north pole, as ascertained by actual measurement of an arc of a meridian. See Metric system, under Metric.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the basic unit of length adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites (approximately 1.094 yards)
2. n. rhythm as given by division into parts of equal duration
3. v. measure with a meter
4. n. any of various measuring instruments for measuring a quantity
5. n. (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
6. v. stamp with a meter indicating the postage