Etimology
From Middle English mesure, from Old French mesure, from Latin mēnsūra (“a measure”), from mēnsus, past participle of mētīrī (“to measure”). Displaced native Old English metan (“to measure”) and ġemet (“a measure”).
noun
measure (plural measures)
A prescribed quantity or extent.
The act or result of measuring.
Metrical rhythm.
A course of action.
Examples
I will correct thee in measure, and will not leaue thee altogether vnpunished.
Full to the utmost measure of what bliss Human desires can seek or apprehend.
but there is never found a foolish man who knows the measure of his stomach
They have gloried to this day, the tedious interminable big-screen replays of that golden summer irritating beyond measure.
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.
a measure of salt
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.
Honesty is the true measure of a man.
The villagers paid a tithe of a thousand measures of corn.
The fragments shrank by increments of about three kilodaltons .
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
coal measures; lead measures
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.
the greatest common measure of two or more numbers
He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,— / "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.
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.
a poem in iambic measure
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..
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.
Related words
synonyms
(musical designation): bar
(unit of measurement): metric
hyponyms
(mathematics): positive measure, signed measure, complex measure, Borel measure, σ-finite measure, complete measure, Lebesgue measure
verb
measure (third-person singular simple present measures, present participle measuring, simple past and past participle measured)
To ascertain the quantity of a unit of material via calculated comparison with respect to a standard.
(stative) To be of (a certain size), to have (a certain measurement)
To estimate the unit size of something.
To judge, value, or appraise.
To obtain or set apart; to mark in even increments.
(rare) To traverse, cross, pass along; to travel over.
To adjust by a rule or standard.
(often with out or off) To allot or distribute by measure; to set off or apart by measure; often with.
(transitive) To regulate or control (one's actions, speech, etc.), as if one were carefully measuring their length or quantity.
Examples
We measured the temperature with a thermometer. You should measure the angle with a spirit level.
But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 : people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
The window measured two square feet.
I measure that at 10 centimetres.
ſince they meaſure our deſerts so meane,That in conceit beare Empires on our ſpeares,Affecting thoughts coequall with the cloudes,They ſhalbe kept our forced followers,Til with their eies they view vs Emperours.
Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite / Thy power! what thought can measure thee?
A true devoted pilgrim is not weary / To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps.
"And for a very sensible reason; there never was but one like her; or, that is, I have always thought so until to-day," replied the tar, glancing toward Natalie; "for my old eyes have seen pretty much everything they have got in this little world. Ha! I should like to see the inch of land or water that my foot hasn't measured."
To secure a contented spirit, you must measure your desires by your fortune and condition, not your fortunes by your desires
With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
That portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun.The spelling has been modernized.
The spelling has been modernized.
To measure one’s own activity, to make it conform to these standards of clearness, brevity and truth, is practically a very difficult matter.
In its opening portrait of Madame Caillaux, the rightist and anti-Caillaux Illustration asked its readers to imagine not a wronged victim or a female ruled by emotion but a careful player who measured her every word.
He measured his actions with a critical eye and was an exemplary citizen and householder. He was, the author explained, a simple, good man, and like all simple, good men he had an ideal […]