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Amount; quantity; portion; space; -- often indefinite. Away he goes, . . . a matter of seven miles. L' Estrange. I have thoughts to tarry a small matter. Congreve. No small matter of British forces were commanded over sea the year before. Mi lton.

The greatest quantity or value attainable in a given case; or, the greatest value attained by a quantity which first increases and then begins to decrease; the highest point or degree; -- opposed to Ant: minimum. Good legislation is the art of conducting a nation to the maximum of happiness, and the minimum of misery.…

Destitute of richness, fertility, strength, or the like; defective in quantity, or poor in quality; poor; barren; scanty in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence of imagery. "Meager soil." Dryden. Of secular habits and meager religious belief. I. Taylor. His education had been but meager. Motley.…

The portion of food taken at a particular time for the satisfaction of appetite; the quantity usually taken at one time with the purpose of satisfying hunger; a repast; the acas, the traveler has not eaten a good meal for a week; there was silence during the meal. What strange fish Hath made his meal on thee Shak.…

ediate value between two extremes, or between the several successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean solar day. Mean distance (of a planet from the sun) (Astron.), the average of the distances throughout one revolution of the planet, equivalent to the se…

A standard of dimension; a fixed unit of quantity or extent; an extent or quantity in the fractions or multiples of which anything is estimated and stated; hence, a rule by which anything is adjusted or judged.

The extent, size, capacity, amount. or quantity ascertained by measuring; as, its measurement is five acres.

asurements, or dividing by measure. Measuring faucet, a faucet which permits only a given quantity of liquid to pass each time it is opened, or one by means of which the liquid which passes can be measured. -- Measuring worm (Zoöl.), the larva of any geometrid moth. See Geometrid.

, governed by, or in accordance with, mechanics, or the laws of motion; pertaining to the quantitative relations of force and matter, as distinguished from mental, vital, chemical, etc.; as, mechanical principles; a mechanical theory; mechanical deposits.

That which lies in the middle, or between other things; intervening body or quantity. Hence, specifically: (a) Middle place or degree; mean. The just medium . . . lies between pride and abjection. L'Estrange.

A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; as, a mess of pottage; also, the food given to a beast at one time. At their savory dinner set Of herbs and other country messes. Milton.

To find the quantity, dimensions, or capacity of, by any rule or standard; to measure.

A quantity of corn formerly given by the lord to his customary tenants, as an encouragement to, or reward for, labor and faithful service.

An instrument for measuring, and usually for recording automatically, the quantity measured. Dry meter, a gas meter having measuring chambers, with flexible walls, which expand and contract like bellows and measure the gas by filling and emptying. -- W, a gas meter in which the revolution of a chambered drum in water…

les or words into verses, stanzas, strophes, etc.; poetical measure, depending on number, quantity, and accent of syllables; rhythm; measure; verse; also, any specific rhythmical arrangements; as, the Horatian meters; a dactylic meter. The only strict antithesis to prose is meter. Wordsworth.

A white waxy substance, found in small quantities in spermaceti as an ethereal salt of several fatty acids, and regarded as an alcohol of the methane series.

A measure of electrical quantity; the millionth part of one coulomb.

d. Too lazy to cut down these immense trees, the spoilers... had mined them, and placed a quantity of gunpowder in the cavity. Sir W. Scott.

ssure in a given time through a hole one inch in diameter. It is a unit for measuring the quantity of water supplied.

The least quantity assignable, admissible, or possible, in a given case; hence, a thing of small consequence; -- opposed to Ant: maximum.