▪ I. method, n.
(ˈmɛθəd)
[a. F. méthode (Rabelais) or ad. L. method-us, a. Gr. µέθοδος pursuit of knowledge, mode of investigation, also as a term in Medicine (see below); f. µετα- meta- + ὁδός way.
The word is now common to all Rom. and Teut. langs. (It. metodo, Sp. método, G. methode, etc.) with approximately the same senses as in Eng. The sense of ‘systematic arrangement’ (branch II below) is foreign to Greek: it was developed through the special application of L. methodus by some logicians of the 16th c. (see sense 4).]
I. Procedure for attaining an object.
† 1. Med. a. The regular, systematic treatment proper for the cure of a specific disease. Obs.
(Now merged in sense 3, where see quots. 1725, 1800, 1887.)
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 A iij, Euery kynde of dysease hath his owne Methode. 1563 T. Gale Inst. Chirurg. 21 b, The Methode of curyng compounde tumors against nature. 1578 Banister Hist. Man Epist. A iv, Then did I clearely see, how that to write Methodes or means to cure the affected partes of the body..might [etc.]. 1696 Phillips, Method,..that part of Physick whereby, remedies are found out by the Indications for the Restoration of Health. |
| fig. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. i. §1 To see wherein the harm which they feel consisteth,..and the method of curing it. a 1716 South Serm. (1744) IX. 38 Let such persons..not quarrel with the great physician of souls for having cured them by easy and gentle methods. |
b. Hist. The system of medicine practised by the ‘methodics’ or ‘methodists’.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 D iv, That is the maner to heale by Methode..yf it so be that Methode is an vnyuersall way. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 344 Thessalus [marg.] He reduced Physicke into a Method: and from him descended the sect called Methodici. a 1790 W. Cullen Lect. Hist. Med. Wks. 1828 I. 383 This easy plan was, by way of eminence called the Method, and the persons who followed it the Methodics. |
2. a. A special form of procedure adopted in any branch of mental activity, whether for the purpose of teaching and exposition, or for that of investigation and inquiry.
| 1586 E. Hoby Pol. Disc. Truth iv. 8 And Plato called a Methode, a fire sent from heauen, which giueth the light that maketh the trueth knowen. 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Method, an order, or readie way to teach, or doo any thing. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvii. §4 Knowledge..ought to be delivered and intimated, if it were possible, in the same method wherein it was invented. 1644 Milton Educ. 2 The same method is necessarily to be follow'd in all discreet teaching. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 254 He has of Knowledge the true Method shewn, To rise Truths abstruse, from Truths well-known. 1780 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xviii. §56 The method of division here pursued. 1852 J. Curwen (title) The Pupil's Manual of the Tonic Sol-Fa Method of teaching to sing. 1869 J. Martineau Ess. II. 55 Mental science does not differ from physical in its methods. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 136 The theses of Parmenides are expressly said to follow the method of Zeno. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. i. 18 It is a distinct property of the Comparative Method of investigation to abate national prejudices. 1876 L. Stephen Eng. Th. 18th C. i. §30 I. 30 Hume..agrees with Descartes..in pursuing the simple introspective method. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. v. 139 The methods of archæological investigation are as trustworthy as those of any natural science. |
† b. The rules and practice proper to a particular art. Obs.
| 1662 Evelyn Diary 22 Aug., The intention being to reduce that art [sc. ship-building] to as certaine a method as any other part of architecture. |
c. in the names of certain specific procedures in mathematics and experimental science.
| 1685 Wallis Algebra lxxiii. 280 The Method of Exhaustions. Ibid. lxxxv. 318 Another Method of Approximation, by Mr. Isaac Newton. 1718–19 Phil. Trans. XXX. 923 A letter of M. l'Abbé Conti..concerning the dispute about the Invention of the Method of Fluxions, or Differential Method. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Method, methodus, is more peculiarly used in mathematics for divers particular processes for solving problems.—In this sense we say Method of exhaustions..Method of fluxions..Method of tangents. 1838 De Morgan Th. Probab. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 451 The method of correction known by the name of that of least squares..was proposed by Legendre in 1806. 1843 Mill Logic iii. viii, Of the Four Methods of Experimental Inquiry. Ibid. iii. xi, Of the Deductive Method. 1843 Mill Logic I. iii. viii. 450 These two methods may be respectively denominated the Method of Agreement, and the Method of Difference. Ibid. 462 This method may be called the Indirect Method of Difference, or the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference. Ibid. 465 The Method of Residues is one of the most important among our instruments of discovery. Ibid. 470 The method by which these results were obtained, may be termed the Method of Concomitant Variations. 1916 H. W. B. Joseph Introd. Logic (ed. 2) xx. 434 So obvious is the difficulty of finding such instances as these canons require, that Mill, having begun by mentioning four methods (of Agreement, of Difference, of Residues, and of Concomitant Variations), adds a fifth, which he calls the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference. 1929 A. N. Whitehead Process & Reality 6 When the method of difference fails, factors which are constantly present may yet be observed under the influence of imaginative thought. 1953 I. M. Copi Introd. Logic xii. 365 We may begin with an example or two in which the scrupulous use of the Methods results in a more or less conspicuous failure to discover the cause of a given phenomenon. 1965 S. F. Barker Elem. Logic vii. 237 When we infer from these data that the hamburgers caused the ptomaine, we are employing what Mill called the method of concomitant variation. |
d. in the title of treatises of instruction in an art or science.
| 1686 (title) A new and easie Method to learn to sing by book, etc. 1758 Nugent (title) A new Method of learning with Facility the Latin Tongue. 1842 Tennyson Amphion 79 They read Botanic Treatises, And Works on Gardening thro' there, And Methods of transplanting trees To look as if they grew there. |
e. Theatr. A theory and practice of acting associated with the Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863–1938), in which the actor seeks the complete illusion of reality by identifying himself as closely as possible with the part he plays. Often attrib., as method-acting, method actor, method school, etc. Also method-act vb., method-acted ppl. adj. Hence (not in common use) methodic, methody adjs.; methodism, methodist ns.
| 1923 O. M. Sayler Russian Theatre 254 ‘My method, though imperfect,’ he [sc. Stanislavsky] says, ‘I consider psychologically natural.’ 1925 H. Carter New Spirit European Theatre xviii. 225 The third movement also was a form of protest by theatrical reformers, who were sick of M. Stanislavsky's hair-for-hair actualistic method. Ibid. 230 Stanislavsky was unable to change his method of production and style, which were suited to a particular species of bourgeoisie play. 1954 F. M. Whiting Introd. Theatre vi. 136 The actor, if sufficiently sensitive to the drives and motives of the character he portrays, will ‘instinctively’ sense what the basic responses should be. To achieve this goal, Stanislavski devised his method. 1956 K. Tynan in Harper's Mag. Mar. 63/2 This is Stanislavsky without Freud, physiological acting without the psychiatric glosses beloved of American ‘method’ actors. 1957 Observer 15 Dec. 10/4 Eli Wallach, the American disciple of the Method.., was admirably solid, but not noticeably more absorbed in his role than some of our own best actors look to be in theirs. 1958 E. Dundy Dud Avocado i. vii. 114 The Method..the Stanislavsky Method: working for realism through improvisations and sense memory, and emotional recall. 1958 Times 11 Nov. 4/5 It was surely not for nothing that [Jackson] Pollock himself belonged to the country that has promulgated the cult of ‘method’ acting. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Mar. 172/1 The whole ‘Method’ school about which so much pedantic and often absurd controversy has raged are dealt with mordantly. 1959 Spectator 29 May 765/1 This was a Method Don Giovanni, with real people caught up in a real drama. 1959 Guardian 15 Oct. 8/3 What emotional exercises had he done in preparation for Romeo? The real Methodist is not so much different in kind as different in degree. 1960 R. Lewis Method—or Madness? i. 4 One hears that Method actors are ‘mumblers’. Ibid. iv. 75 Another reason that some actors..seem ‘Methody’, or inexplicably involved, is that their approach is too analytical. 1960 New Left Rev. Sept.–Oct. 65/1 The method-acted Tomorrow With Pictures. 1961 20th Cent. Feb. 134 Other factors include the impact of Method-ism in the theatre. 1962 New Statesman 19 Jan. 97/1 This long film forfeits seriousness..by being..too thunderously repetitious, too Methodic, strenuous and symbolic. 1963 Times 17 Jan. 4/6 Even the Method groups that were flourishing in London a few years ago have now mainly vanished. 1967 Spectator 7 July 22/2 His method acting is not merely an attack on their academic ennui, but a mask for his own profound frustrations. 1970 J. Quartermain Man who walked on Diamonds xvii. 90 Method-act yourself into a super-sleuth. 1971 J. Willett in A. Bullock 20th Cent. 243/1 In America..the Group Theater..applied the realistic Stanislavsky ‘method’ for social ends. 1972 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 24 Feb. 44/1 A method actor will use his own memory to simulate an emotion for the cameras. 1973 H. McCloy Change of Heart xii. 146 If she could feel like that, maybe she would look like that. ‘Method’ acting. Stanislavsky. |
3. a. In wider sense: A way of doing anything, esp. according to a defined and regular plan; a mode of procedure in any activity, business, etc.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 34 If you will iest with me, know my aspect, And fashion your demeanor to my lookes, Or I will beat this method in your sconce. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. i. iii. 7 Madam, me thinkes if you did loue him deerly, You do not hold the method, to enforce The like from him. 1602 [? Cooke] How a man may choose good wife B 3 b, I will prescribe a methode How thou shalt win hir without al peraduenture. 1660 Barrow Euclid i. ix. Coroll., The method of cutting angles. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 42 The Hen did walk in a fourfold Method towards her Chickens. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 359 He did very often assure me he was against all violent methods, and all persecution for conscience sake. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. 336 The old Man began to ask me, if he should put me in a Method to make my Claim to my Plantation. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 262 This is the only Method to be continued while the Symptoms are not extremely dangerous. 1761 Gray Sketch 2 Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune, He had not the method of making a fortune. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §274 In our work, it was performed in the following method. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 494 Mr. P. was delighted to hear that I thought a cure was not impracticable, and laboured ardently to persuade me to inform him of the method I should use. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 365 Scheele has given two methods for obtaining this acid. 1819 Byron Juan i. vii, This is the usual method, but not mine—My way is to begin with the beginning. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. vii. (1879) 256 There are two methods of observing the time of transit over a wire, one called the eye and ear method, the other the galvanic method. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 200 A perfect method of warming churches has yet to be invented. 1887 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 26 Feb. 448/2 Benefit from this line of treatment must not be expected immediately, and the method should be persevered with for at least some months. |
† b. A scheme, plan of action. Obs.
| 1704 J. Trapp Abra-Mulé i. i. 319 All my Designs and Methods still were cross'd. |
† c. A mode (of employment). Obs.
| 1712 Steele Spect. No. 294 ¶1 Sixteen hundred Children, including Males and Females, put out to Methods of Industry. |
d. In generalized use: The methods of procedure in any department, considered as the object of a branch of study; esp. with reference to teaching. Cf. sense 6.
| 1848 W. Ross (title) The Teacher's Manual of Method; or general principles of teaching and school-keeping. 1879 A. Park (title) A Manual of Method for Pupil-Teachers and Assistant Masters. |
e. Campanology. (See quot. 1901.)
| 1668 ‘Campanista’ Tintinnalogia 2 Before I Treat of the method and diversity of Peals, I think it not impertinent to speak something of the Properties wherewith a Young Ringer ought to be qualified. 1852 B. Thackrah Art Change Ringing 14 These twenty-four changes may be rung in several other methods. 1879 W. Banister Art & Sci. Change Ringing (ed. 2) 14 The Plain Bob Method—is applicable to any number of bells, but is properly an even bell method. 1901 H. E. Bulwer Gloss. Technical Terms Bells 10 Method, any special way in which continuous ‘changes’ on five or more bells are produced by the regular and orderly movement of all, without repetition of any one ‘change’. 1901, 1928 [see extent n. 7]. 1962 G. E. Evans Ask Fellows who cut Hay (ed. 2) xviii. 147 The old ringer answered.., ‘No tunes. We allus rang the method, the same as we did in the steeples.’ 1965 W. G. Wilson Change Ringing xviii. 149 We showed how variations in a method could be made in the Plain Bob type of method by means of second place. |
II. Systematic arrangement, order.
4. A branch of Logic or Rhetoric which teaches how to arrange thoughts and topics for investigation, exposition, or literary composition.
| 1551 T. Wilson Logike E iv b, The maner of handeling a single Question, and the readie waie howe to teache and sette forth any thyng plainlie, and in order, as it should be, in latine Methodus. Ibid. K ij, We spake before of a methode, or directe order to be vsed in all our doinges. 1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. i. 7 Methode hath only to deale with the ordering and setling of many axioms. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvii. §2 Methode hath beene placed, and that not amisse in Logicke, as a part of Iudgement; For as the Doctrine of Syllogismes comprehendeth the rules of Iudgement vppon that which is inuented. So the Doctrine of Methode contayneth the rules of Iudgement vppon that which is to bee deliuered. 1627 Hakewill Apol. (1630) 261 To this body [the art of Logic] have they not improperly added the doctrine of Methods as a necessary limbe thereof. a 1679 Hobbes Rhet. (1681) 1 We see that all men naturally are able in some sort to accuse and excuse: Some by chance; but some by method. This method may be discovered: and to discover Method is all one with teaching an Art. 1713 Steele Englishm. No. 7. 46 Their Children were instructed early in the Rules of Method. 1725 Watts Logic iv. i, In logic..Method is the disposition of a variety of thoughts on any subject, in such order as may best serve to find out unknown truths. 1780 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xvi. §1 note, The particular uses of method are various: but the general one is, to enable men to understand the things that are the subjects of it. 1827 Hutton Course Math. I. 3 Method is the art of disposing a train of arguments in a proper order, to investigate either the truth or falsity of a proposition, or to demonstrate it to others when it has been found out. 1849 Abp. Thomson Laws Th. (ed. 2) 95 Method, which is usually described as the fourth part of Logic, is rather a complete practical Logic. 1870 Jevons Elem. Logic xxiv. 201 Method is..defined as consisting in such a disposition of the parts of a discourse that the whole may be most easily intelligible. |
5. Orderly arrangement of ideas and topics in thinking or writing; orderliness and sequence of thought or expression. Phr. method in one's madness (also varr. of this expression, normally with allusion to quot. 1602): reason, orderliness, or sense lying behind one's apparent insanity or stupidity.
| 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 3 They [certain writers] obserue no order or Methode in their teaching. 1581 W. Lambarde Eiren. ii. vii. (1588) 223 To me, that am desirous to follow some order, and methode of discourse, the generall must alwayes go before the particular. 1592 Warner Alb. Eng. vii. xxxv. (1612) 171 Though his words lackt methode, yeat they moued. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 208 Though this be madnesse, Yet there is Method in't. 1649 Roberts Clavis Bibl. Introd. iii. 39 Method and order, as it is the mother of memory, so it is a singular friend to a cleare understanding. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxx. 184 Unlesse we shall think there needs no method in the study of the Politiques. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 654 Horace still charms with graceful negligence, And without method talks us into sense. 1753 Johnson Adventurer No. 85 ¶17 Method is the excellence of writing, and unconstraint the grace of conversation. a 1834 Coleridge On Method in Encycl. Metrop. I. Introd. 2 The total absence of Method renders thinking impracticable. 1842 H. Rogers Ess. (1874) I. i. 33 His very method..consists in a contempt of all method. 1843 Poe Gold-Bug in Dollar Newspaper (Philadelphia) 21 June 1/7 My friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, certain indications of method. 1850 F. E. Smedley Frank Fairleigh xxix. 241 A fear of completely knocking up..induced me to preserve some little method in my madness. 1880 W. Sanday in Expositor XI. 362 He sought to give to the allegorical interpretation a greater method. 1894 A. Conan Doyle Mem. Sherlock Holmes 128, I have usually found that there was method in his madness. 1911 Brereton & Rothwell tr. Bergson's Laughter i. 2 The comic spirit has a logic of its own, even in its wildest eccentricities. It has a method in its madness. 1922 Chesterton Man who knew too Much 110 He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It's what drives men mad being methodical. 1953 A. Huxley Let. 21 July (1969) 680 There is, in the long run (at least I hope so), some kind of method in my madness. |
6. a. The order and arrangement observed in framing a particular discourse or literary composition; an author's design or plan.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. i. 13 Verbatim to rehearse the Methode of my Penne. 1594 ― Rich. III, i. ii. 116 To leaue this keene encounter of our wittes, And fall something into a slower method. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 609/2 Tell them then, I pray you, in the same order that you have now rehearsed them; for there can be noe better methode then this which the very matter it self offereth. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. Pref., As for the methode of the booke, although it be not such as may in euery point satisfie the curiositie of Dichotomistes: yet is it such as I thought most conuenient for the capacitie of the learner. 1622 Wither Fair Virtue C 2 b, If my Methode they deride, Let them know, Loue is not tide In his free Discourse, to chuse Such strict rules as Arts-men vse. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. iii. xii. (1712) 126, I had here ended all my Stories, were I not tempted by that remarkable one in Bodinus to outrun my method. 1706 London & Wise Retir'd Gard'ner I. Pref. A j b, The first of these Books was..perus'd by several ingenious Gentlemen, who liking the Method of it, were desirous to have it translated. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 279 What's that which brings contempt upon a book, And him who writes it, though the style be neat, The method clear, and argument exact? |
† b. A regular, systematic arrangement of literary materials; a methodical exposition. Obs.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. ii. (Arb.) 21 If Poesie be now an Art,..and yet were none, vntill by studious persons fashioned and reduced into a method of rules and precepts. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvii. §6 The deliuerie of knowledge in Aphorismes, or in Methodes; wherein wee may obserue that it hath beene too much taken into Custome, out of a fewe Axiomes or Obseruations, vppon any Subiecte, to make a solemne, and formall Art; filling it with some Discourses, and illustratinge it with Examples; and digesting it into a sensible Methode. But the writinge in Aphorismes hath manye excellent vertues, whereto the writinge in Methode doth not approach. Ibid. §7. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. ¶3 Cutting off the superfluities of the lawes, and digesting them into some order and method. 1680 (title) A brief Method of the Law. Being an exact alphabetical disposition of all the heads necessary for a perfect Commonplace. 1706 London & Wise Retir'd Gard'ner I. Pref. A ij, Several gentlemen would often have ask'd us Questions relating to our Profession, but were at a Loss how to form them into a Method, and word them so that we might rightly understand what they meant. 1829 Bentham Justice & Cod. Petit. Prelim. Expl. p.v, In the disposition made of the matter of the original draft..a method..has been given to it. |
† c. The scheme or summary of the contents of a book, set forth in a table. Obs.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 244 Ol. In his bosome, In what chapter of his bosome? Vio. To answer by the method in the first of his hart. a 1613 Overbury A Wife (1614) B, The Method. First of Mariage, and the effect thereof, children. Then of his contrarie, Lust; then [etc.]. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 3 And with these wee shall now begin; for the Method of the second Book is more conveniently put there before it. |
7. In wider sense: Orderliness and regularity in doing anything; the habit of acting according to plan and order.
| 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King & no K. v. iv, There is a method in mans wickednesse, It growes vp by degrees. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. 1. §33 That so putting the Houses into some method and order of their future debate, they would be more easily regulated than if they were in the beginning left to that liberty which they naturally affected. 1714 Swift Pres. St. Affairs ¶2 After which I know no Talents necessary besides Method and Skill in the common forms of business. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1811) V. xiv. (cont.) 125 But early hours, and method, and ease, without hurry, will do every thing. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 231/2 No man ever gave himself up more entirely to any object, or prosecuted it..with..more method and skilful management. |
† 8. A particular state of orderly arrangement; a disposition of things according to a regular plan or design. Obs.
| 1635 Shirley Coronat. i. (1640) C, A small wound Ith' head, may spoyle the method of his haire. 1677 Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 561, I am frequent with Mr. Fisher and our Counsell, having put all things into the best method for an hearing. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 207 The king was beginning to put things in great method, in his revenue, in his troops [etc.]. 1716 Addison Drummer iv. i, I would have all the knives and forks..laid in a method. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1811) V. xiv. (cont.) 125 All is in such a method, that it seems impossible for the meanest servants to mistake their duty. |
9. Nat. Hist. A system; scheme of classification.
Now most naturally interpreted as short for ‘method of classification’, which would commonly be apprehended as an instance of sense 2 or 3. Of the difference between ‘system’ and ‘method’, contradictory accounts were formerly given: see quots.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 355 Method and System..have often been..used indifferently to signify the same thing... But if we consider their real meaning,— a Method should signify an Artificial, and a System a Natural arrangement of objects. 1828–32 Webster, Method...3. Classification;..as,..the method of Ray; the Linnean method... A distinction is sometimes made between method and system. System is an arrangement founded, throughout all its parts, on some one principle. Method is an arrangement less fixed and determinate... Thus we say, the natural method, and the artificial or sexual system of Linnæus. 1834 McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 4 This scaffolding of divisions, the superior of which contain the inferior, is called a method. |
III. 10. Comb.: † method-monger, a contemptuous term for one who deals in logical ‘method’; in quot. 1647 with a play on Gr. µεθοδεία (rendered ‘wiles’ in the Revised Version of 1881); methods engineer, a person concerned with method study and methods engineering in a business; methods engineering, the organization of business methods through method study; method(s) study, the use of time-and-motion study and other systems to determine the most efficient methods to use in business activities.
| 1617 Donne Serm. Luke xxiii. 40 (1661) III. 5 We steal our Learning if we..deale upon Rhapsoders, and Common placers, and Method-mongers. 1647 Trapp Comm. Eph. iv. 14 The devil and his disciples are notable method-mongers, so as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. 1676 R. Dixon Two Test. To Rdr. 12 Such are our systematical Method-mongers, blundering in their Dichotomies after the way of Ramus or Keckerman. |
| [1928 R. C. Davis Princ. Factory Organization & Managem. vi. 72 The methods manager or industrial engineer is concerned primarily with the efficient application of the human forces of the organization.] 1939 Maynard & Stegemerten Operation Analysis i. 5 Time formulas are useful mathematical devices that the methods engineer employs. 1944 ― Guide to Methods Improvement ii. 9 A methods engineer secured a position in a textile mill in the South. 1953 J. R. Immer Materials Handling iii. 30 This part of materials movement is..more often the concern of the methods engineer than of the materials-handling engineer. 1960 News Chron. 28 July 8/8 (Advt.), Methods Engineer..experience of Time and Methods Study and Ratefixing. |
| 1939 Maynard & Stegemerten Operation Analysis i. 1 Before discussing the methods-engineering procedure in detail, it will be advisable to formulate a clear statement of what the term covers... Methods engineering is the industrial science which is chiefly concerned with increasing labor effectiveness. 1944 ― Guide to Methods Improvement i. 5 In order to continue to make improvements in methods, a procedure known as ‘method engineering’ has been developed. 1953 J. R. Immer Materials Handling iv. 41 The methods-engineering department has the responsibility for ‘planning the manual part of the operation’. |
| 1932 A. H. Mogenson Common Sense appl. to Motion & Time Study i. 11 More attention is being given to this phase of methods study at present. 1939 Maynard & Stegemerten Operation Analysis i. 2 A methods study always begins with a careful primary analysis of existing conditions. 1955 Furniture Devel. Council Newslet. June 3/2 Efficient method study cannot be put into practice without a sound knowledge of the work in hand. 1959 Gloss. Terms Work Study (B.S.I.) 6 Method study, the systematic recording and critical examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work, as a means of developing and applying easier and more effective methods and reducing costs. 1969 J. Argenti Managem. Techniques i. 2 One glance round the factory is enough to reveal to an expert whether the manager there has been using Method Study, for example. Ibid. 167 The Method Study Officer..analyses the purpose and function of each step in the process. |
▪ II. † ˈmethod, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. method n.]
trans. To methodize, arrange.
| 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions xlii. 547 He [the Devil] is able..so to method and contrive his devices, that [etc.]. |