scale
noun
- overlapping pieces of keratin on the skin of an animal
- covering of an insect's wing
noun
- ordered arrangement of musical tones
- ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground
- ordered arrangement of musical tones with tone or halftone differences
- extent or size of a length, distance, or area being studied or described
- proportional ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the same feature of the original
- tool used to draw or measure distances along a straight line
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L1319936 on Wikidata ↗verb
- change size
verb
- remove scales from a fish
- develop dry, scaly skin
noun
- process of measuring used in social sciences; a type of composite measure
- weighing scale
verb
- to climb to the top of
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /skeɪl/ / [skeɪ̯(ə)ɫ] / /skæɪl/
noun
Etymology: Inherited from Northern Middle English scale (non-Northern scole), from Old Norse skál (“bowl”) from Proto-Germanic *skēlō. Compare Danish skål (“bowl, cup”), Dutch schaal, German Schale, Old High German scāla, Old English scealu (“cup”).
- A device to measure mass or weight.
“After the long, lazy winter I was afraid to get on the scale.”
- Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish and/or Old High German skala, from Proto-Germanic *skalō. Cognate with Old English sċealu (“shell, husk”), whence the modern doublet shale. Further cognate with Dutch schaal, German Schale, French écale.
- To remove the scales of.
“Please scale that fish for dinner.”
- To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
“The dry weather is making my skin scale.”
- To strip or clear of scale; to descale.
“to scale the inside of a boiler”
- To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
“1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even”
- To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
“Some sandstone scales by exposure.”
“Those that cast their shell are the lobster and crab; the old skins are found, but the old shells never; so it is likely that they scale off.”
- To scatter; to spread.
- To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.
“cannons […]caused to be scaled and loaded”