▪ I. calliper, caliper
(ˈkælɪpə(r))
Forms: 6 calleper, 7 callaper, -par, calloper, 7–8 callipper, 8 caliber, (canniper), 7– calliper, caliper.
[App. the same word as calibre; calliper compasses being compasses for measuring the calibre of a bullet, etc. The earliest known English instances of calliper compasses occur in a book translated from Italian, with an Appendix ‘to shew the Properties, Office, and Dutie of a Gunner’. Cf. also Florio (1611) ‘Colibro, as Calibro, an instrument that Gunners vse to measure the height of any piece or bullet; also, the height or bore of any piece’. It is however remarkable that from the beginning the words were spelt differently; only in modern times do we find occasional conscious identification with caliber, calibre.]
1. a. Originally used attrib., calliper compasses or compasses calliper, compasses used to measure the calibre of shot; afterwards usually in pl. callipers or pair of callipers: A kind of compasses with bowed legs for measuring the diameter of convex bodies; often with a scale attached for reading off the measurements; also a similar instrument with straight legs and points turned outwards for measuring the bore or internal diameter of tubes, etc.
| 1588 Lucar Colloq. Arte Shooting App. 35 Measure first with a paire of calleper compasses the whole thickness of the peece. Measure likewise with a paire of other compasses, I mean straight compasses, the Diameter of the concauitie in the Peece. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 68 Compasse Callipers belongs to the Gunner, and is like two half Circles that hath a handle and ioint like a paire of Compasses. 1644 Nye Gunnery i. (1647) 49 To take the said height or Diam. of the shot with a pair of Callaper compasses. Ibid. (1670) 50 Also by such a pair of Callapers you may find the Diameter of the Base-Ring, and of the Mussel-Ring of any Piece of Ordnance. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 196 Callippers measure..any round Cilindrick Conical Body. 1692 in Capt. Smith's Seaman's Gram. ii. viii. 97 To find the Diameter of any round Shot..by a pair of Calloper Compasses, which are Compasses bowed at the Points. 1753 Hogarth Anal. Beauty Introd. 47 These points may be marked upon a marble figure with calibers properly used. 1795 Home in Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 6 Measured by a pair of calliper compasses. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing vii. 372 An anvil, a hammer, and a pair of calipers. 1859 Smiles Self-Help 267 Moral philosophy which proposes to measure our heads with callipers. 1876 Catal. Sci. Appar. S. Kens. No. 284 Universal Calliper, with slide and reverse action. No. 271 Calliper with Dial..divided into eighths of an inch. |
b. Applied to measuring rules of varying shape for taking the dimensions of other than round bodies. calliper-square, a rule or square carrying movable cross-heads, adapted for the measurement of internal and external diameters or sizes.
| 1708 Kersey, Callipers, an instrument made like a Sliding-Rule, to embrace the two Heads of a Cask, or Barrel, in order to find the length of it. 1876 Catal. Sci. Appar. S. Kens. No. 293 Collection of Timber Callipers for the use of foresters. Mod. techn. Calliper (in Liverpool timber yards), a rule for measuring timber, something like that which shoemakers use to measure feet. |
2. transf. The clip for holding the load in a crane.
| 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. III. 272 Portable Cranes..to draw Stone out of the Quarry with Callipers. |
3. Watchmaking. ‘The disposition of the parts of a watch or clock; the arrangement of the train’ (Britten). App. akin to calibre.
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 151 As a matter of convenience in arranging the caliper of the watch. |
4. A metal support for a broken or diseased leg. Also calliper splint.
| 1886 H. O. Thomas Contrib. Surg. & Med. vi. 85 We decided to fix the whole extremity in a Calliper splint, which enabled him to resume his personal attention to business. 1890 Ibid. vii. 50 A most efficient mechanical means of assistance..I found to be the ‘calliper-knee-splint’... Its defects are, that it (the ‘calliper’) has to be altered in shape [etc.]. 1959 B.S.I. News Mar. 32 Thigh corsets and cuff tops for orthopaedic calipers. |
▸ caliper brake a type of rim-brake, chiefly used on bicycles, which consists of a pair of arms straddling the wheel and pivoting at the top, and is applied by an inward movement of the arms till the brake pads grip the wheel rim from either side.
| [1919 Cycling 4 Dec. 453/1 The brake is of the ‘calliper’ type, which grips the rim at the edges and parts to allow the wheel to be removed.] 1920 Cycling 15 Jan. p. viii/1 (advt.) Chater Lea road racer, 21-in. frame,..*Calliper brake,..in excellent condition, {pstlg}13. 1946 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 14 Nov. 9/4 (advt.) Cycle Accessories... Calliper Brakes and Cables. 2005 Sunday Times (Nexis) 3 Apr. 23 When you do get a shift on, the Brembo four-piston calliper brakes are surprisingly effective in stopping the 1,300lb of bike. |
▪ II. ˈcalliper, v.
[f. prec. n.]
To measure with or use callipers. Hence ˈcallipering vbl. n.
| 1876 Catal. Sci. Appar. S. Kens. No. 477 Callipering Engine (British Horological Institute). 1881 Hasluck Lathe Work 34 The diameter of the cylinder is tested by callipering. |