measuring-tape

Put a ruler/measuring-tape against the wall, step on it with your heel against the wall, let your foot settle in and measure the length to your longest toe.

Ditch Your Shoes For Better Runs | Lifehacker Australia 2009

The life — the one fragile life — that had been used as a measuring-tape of time by law, was in danger of being frayed away.

The Woodlanders 2006

Having no measuring-tape with me, I stripped a ribbon of bark from a hickory sapling, carried it around the animal's body at the largest part, and marked it.

With Sabre and Scalpel. The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon John Allan 1914

Mr. Colt rode off to his squad, and none too soon; for the men, startled by Mr. Isidore's sudden onslaught of authority and the explosive language in which he ordered them hither and thither, cursing one for his slowness with the measuring-tape, taking another by the shoulders and pushing him into position, began to show signs of mutiny.

Brother Copas Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

Thorndyke had seen them, too, and already his measuring-tape was in his hand.

John Thorndyke's Cases related by Christopher Jervis and edited by R. Austin Freeman 1902

Thorndyke produced from his bag a small folding camera, a telescopic tripod, a surveyor's measuring-tape, a boxwood scale, and a sketch-block.

John Thorndyke's Cases related by Christopher Jervis and edited by R. Austin Freeman 1902

Even Mrs. Williams had appreciated that Wilbur and her literary superiority put them above and beyond the application of any snobbish, artificial, social measuring-tape.

Unleavened Bread Robert Grant 1896

But what most attracted her eye was a small flagstone turned up in the middle of the floor, a heap of earth beside it, and a measuring-tape.

The Trumpet-Major Thomas Hardy 1884

The life -- the one fragile life -- that had been used as a measuring-tape of time by law, was in danger of being frayed away.

The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy 1884

Is a contemptible little two-foot measuring-tape to be applied to such an action as that? '

Clara Hopgood Mark Rutherford 1872