▪ I. meter, n.1
(ˈmiːtə(r))
Also 5 metere, metar, 6 meater, 6–7 metter, 8 meeter.
[f. mete v.1 + -er1.]
One who measures; a measurer; esp. one whose duty or office is to see that commodities are of the proper measure, as coal-meter, land-meter: see these words.
| 1382 Wyclif Zech. ii. 1 In his hond a litil covrde of meters [1388 meteris, Vulg. funiculus mensorum]. 1468 Maldon, Essex Liber B. lf. 15 (MS.) And the metere shall stryke the busshell & make the hepe trewely betwixe party and party. And the comounn meter shall mete trewely the corne to be delyuered atte hythe. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 44 Paulyn the metar of corne. 1519 Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869) I. 190 And at na metter mett the said meill bot the bringare thairof to the merkat vnder the payne of banesing. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 9 §5 The said common meater to haue for the measuring of euery way of corne .ii.d. 1577 Harrison England ii. v. (1877) i. 127 A verie sharpe imprecation..promiseth like measure to the meter, as he dooth mete to others. 1666 Act 18 & 19 Chas. II, c. 8 §34 Before they shall breake Bulke or have a Meter assigned for the measureing or weighing of any Coales..to be delivered from on board any such Shipp. 1681 MS. Indenture Finkill Street, Hull, William Haward metter. 1796 Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 38 But the aulnager, the weigher, the meter of grants, will not suffer us to acquiesce in the judgement of the prince reigning at the time when they were made. 1800 Colquhoun Comm. Thames xi. 331 To appoint sworn Meters, for measuring Coals in the Port of London. 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 260 After the ship is sold she is admitted from the Section into the Pool, and a meter is appointed to her from the coalmeter's office. 1881 Times 11 Apr. 4/5 When a barge with the plaintiff's corn in it arrived in the creek..the creek men were to hand over the meter's ticket of the corn to the plaintiff's foreman. |
| fig. 1825 Hazlitt Spirit of Age 44 Reason is the meter and alnager in civil intercourse, by which each person's..pretensions are weighed. |
▪ II. † ˈmeter, n.2 Obs. rare—1.
[f. mete v.2 + -er1.]
A dreamer.
| 1340 Ayenb. 32 Þe meteres þet habbeþ drede of hare metinges. |
▪ III. meter, n.3
(ˈmiːtə(r))
Also 9 (rarely) metre.
[First used in gas-meter; probably an application of meter1, suggested by the earlier gasometer or by the other words with the ending -meter.]
1. a. (In full gas-meter.) An apparatus for automatically measuring and recording the volume of gas supplied for lighting or other purposes.
In the ordinary forms, the gas is made to pass through receptacles of known capacity, each filling and discharge of one of these being registered by the movement of an index on a dial. dry meter: a meter in which no water is used; the earlier and still commonly used form being called for distinction wet meter.
| 1815 [see gas n.1 7]. 1830 in Fifesh. Advert. 21 Sept. (1888) 4/3 To limit the price of gas by meter to 12s. nett per 1000 cubic feet. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 195 After turning all off at the meter. |
b. In extended sense: Any apparatus for automatically measuring and recording the quantity of a fluid or the like flowing through it. Used with prefixed word, as water-meter, electric light meter, etc., exc. where the purpose is sufficiently indicated by the context.
Also, with prefixed attributive word, in the names of instruments for measuring electrical quantities of various kinds, as ampere-meter, coulomb-meter, farad-meter, ohm-meter, voltmeter, watt-meter, which see under their respective first elements. See the remarks on these under -meter.
| 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. viii. (ed. 3) 57 The sale of water by the different companies in London, might also, with advantage, be regulated by a meter. 1858 Greener Gunnery 52 This machine I termed an explosion metre;.. In each of these experiments the greatest accuracy was observed, in preparing the metre as well as in weighing the charge. |
c. fig. A ‘gauge’, self-acting measure of the fluctuations of something.
| 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 351 The coin is a delicate meter of civil, social, and moral changes. 1870 ― Soc. & Solit., Eloq. ibid. III. 26 The audience is a constant meter of the orator. |
d. = exposure meter.
| 1920 Sat. Westm. Gaz. 22 May 16/2 The golden rule is to expose by meter on the holiday, and leave all else to the return home. |
e. U.S. slang. (See quots.)
| 1940 Music Makers May 37/2 Meter, quarter, twenty-five cents. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 337/2 Meter, a quarter... From the coin which often is needed to operate a gas meter. Orig. Negro use. Never common. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 81 Meter, twenty-five cent coin. |
f. = parking meter.
| 1960 Daily Tel. 31 Mar. 15/1 What promises to be the most important experiment in traffic control starts next Monday, when car parking over the whole of Mayfair becomes subject to meters. 1973 Weekly News (Glasgow) 11 Aug. 2/2 After a search, I found a parking place in Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon. I was standing next to the meter..when a man who'd been standing on the opposite pavement came over. 1974 Times 21 Jan. 12/8 Since many meters in the Whitehall area have been suspended because of bomb threats, the wardens had a field day. |
2. a. attrib., as meter box, meter chamber, meter house, meter inspector, meter rent, meter-wheel.
| 1882 Worcester Exhib. Catal. iii. 16 Mr. Palmer's Patent *Meter Boxes. |
| 1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 July 6/3 The pumps discharge into a *meter chamber, where the sewage is measured. |
| 1897 Daily News 1 June 3/3 Land for *meter houses and other works. |
| 1895 Ibid. 10 Oct. 6/4 The *meter inspectors. |
| 1895 Westm. Gaz. 17 Apr. 3/3 It is fairer to charge a *meter rent than to charge a higher price for the gas. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Meter-wheel, one used in connection with gas and liquid meters and air-carbureting machines. |
b. Special Combs.: meter-feeder, a motorist who illicitly extends his parking time by putting more money in the meter instead of moving away; so meter-feeding vbl. n.; meter maid orig. U.S. (see quot. 1958); meter-park v. trans., to park a vehicle at a parking meter; meter-parking, the use of parking meters; a place at a parking meter; meter-reader, a person responsible for reading gas or electricity meters; meter-reading, the reading of a meter or meters; meter zone, a limited area where the parking of vehicles is controlled by meters.
| 1965 Guardian 5 Apr. 8/2 The would-be meter feeder is tipped off if a hostile scout appears. 1972 Ibid. 8 May 9/6 Scotland Yard..was setting up a special vigilante squad whose job was to keep tabs on meter feeders in Central London. |
| 1966 Punch 5 Jan. 15/1 Driving dangerously, you may think, is obviously much more criminal than meter-feeding. But meter-feeding is a deliberately calculated breach of the law, whereas dangerous driving may be accidental. 1969 Guardian 28 Mar. 22/4 We realize councils must do something to stop meter feeding. |
| 1957 in Amer. Speech (1961) XXXVI. 282 Surveys conducted in cities using ‘meter maids’ have found that their meter revenue increased. 1958 Britannica Bk. of Year 519/2 Meter maid,..a woman police official with the task of patrolling metered parking-sites and reporting parking offences. 1968 Harper's Mag. Feb. 41 A Meter Maid was soon watching me censoriously. 1970 S. Ellin Man from Nowhere xxx. 150 Some meter maid found him when she looked in the car where it was parked uptown. 1970 Sunday Times 3 May 28/7 Why do meter maids..never look glamorous at all? 1971 H. C. Rae Marksman iii. iii. 212 The Mark 10 was meter-parked close to the side entrance. |
| 1959 Daily Tel. 15 Dec. 1/7 In the past month, 81 motorists were convicted of contravening the existing meter parking scheme. 1963 D. B. Hughes Expendable Man (1964) iv. 109 There were no meter parkings open near the courthouse. 1963 Times 8 Jan. 9/3 In an ideal world, everyone in uniform, from guardsmen to meter readers, would be immaculately turned out and dressed in strict conformity with the rules of their service. 1971 A. Price Alamut Ambush x. 123 A duty caller like the meter reader and the postman. 1974 Times 18 Apr. 14 Where the occupiers are out when he calls, the meter-reader leaves a card, inviting them to be at home next day. |
| 1957 V. J. Kehoe Technique Film & Television Make-Up viii. 96 The middle of the ratio scale on a meter reading. 1959 Daily Tel. 15 Dec. 1/7 Larger meter zone by April. 1963 Sunday Express 3 Mar. 4/4, I had paid out over {pstlg}220 in parking fines in the past 21 months because I lived in a ‘meter zone’. |
Add: Hence ˈmeterless a., having no meter; also, done without the aid of a meter.
| 1978 Taxi 16 Feb. 3/4 No one..is going to go along to the Public Carriage Office and demand the passing of a meterless cab. 1979 Mod. Photogr. Dec. 21/1 Is a meterless camera a bit too pedestrian for you? O.K., go add a meter. 1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 11 Oct. 17/2 The North Queensland Electricity Board had submitted a proposal for ‘meterless’ billing or ‘agreed demand’ billing. |
▪ IV. meter, n.4 ? U.S.
(ˈmiːtə(r))
Either of two strengthening lines of a seine or gill net.
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. [In later Dicts.] |
▪ V. † meter, n.5 Obs. rare—1.
[? a. F. métier: see mestier.]
? Office.
| c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) F ij, O Priest..Howe muche more thou passest in great aucthoritie, In meter or order, in office or prebende, So muche loke in vertue and maners to ascende. [Orig. Aspice quam differs alijs in veste sacerdos, Tantum differre moribus ipse velis.] |
▪ VI. ˈmeter, v.
[meter n.3]
1. a. To measure by means of a meter. Also, to supply through a meter.
| 1884 Science III. 497 The real proportions of air and gas were not determinable, except by metering both. 1894 Times 14 Aug. 11/4 The oil, waste, water, and general engine-room stores work out to ·0657 penny per unit metered. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. 192/2 It is meaningful to envisage computer power being metered to separate offices. |
b. trans. To regulate the flow of; to deliver (fluid) in regulated amounts to.
| 1932 Compression Ignition Engines xi. 132 Injection Pump.—A mechanical device which meters the liquid fuel in controllable quantities and delivers it at a set pressure to the working cylinders. 1963 Adv. Space Sci. & Technol. Suppl. I. 173 In addition to atomizing and mixing the liquids, it meters the flow to the combustion chamber. 1972 Sci. Amer. Aug. 21/2 Oil could also be metered to the critical contact region. |
2. To measure (the parking-time) of motorists, etc., by means of parking meters; to provide with parking meters.
| 1957, etc. [implied in metered ppl. a. below]. 1962 Times 16 Apr. 11/3 Brighton has proposed to meter the sea-front motorists' parking-time. 1963 ‘W. Haggard’ High Wire iii. 24 The comfortable little street..had recently been metered. |
So ˈmetered ppl. a.
| 1928 M. Rittenberg Mail-Order made Easy xiv. 177 ‘Metered’ mail—where a printed impression is put on the envelope instead of an adhesive stamp. 1957 New Yorker 26 Oct. 36/1 You can park scooters almost anywhere without getting a ticket. In a metered area, the usual thing is to park them sidewise, between two parked cars. 1960 Guardian 13 Jan. 6/7 When all Mayfair becomes metered..the position of the motorists will be worse than ever. 1961 Ibid. 27 June 5/6 A motorist..may only park his car in a metered parking place. 1963 ‘W. Haggard’ High Wire iii. 24 This was a metered parking ground. 1968 Listener 27 June 851/1 The trouble is that in this country taxi-drivers who work for garages and not for themselves are commonly paid no set wages, but instead a proportion of the metered fare—say, 40 per cent. |
▪ VII. meter
see metre n.1 and n.2