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

[Middle English, from Old French escale, of Germanic origin; see skel- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin scālae, ladder; see skand- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, bowl, balance, from Old Norse skāl; see skel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse skál ("bowl"). Compare Danish skål ("bowl, cup"), Dutch schaal; German Schale; Old High German scāla; Gothic skalja, Old English scealu ("cup", "shell"). Cognate with scale, as in Etymology 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English scale, from Old English scealu ("a scale, husk"), Old High German scāla; compare Old French escale ("husk, chip"), French écale, Italian scaglia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae ("a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder"), for *scadla, from scandere ("to climb"); see scan, ascend, descend, etc.

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Examples

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

    Exponential Growth in Physical Systems « Climate Audit 2007

  • 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.

    Exponential Growth in Physical Systems « Climate Audit 2007

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 ….

    Cheney says GOP presidential bench still strong 2009

  • 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

  • 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

Comments

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  • 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