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of the kind designated, taken as a standard of comparison for others of the same kind, in assigning to them numerical values, as 1 foot, 1 yard, 1 mile, 1 square foot, 1 square yard, 1 cubic foot, 1 peck, 1 bushel, 1 gallon, 1 cent, 1 ounce, 1 pound, 1 hour, and the like; more specifically, the fundamental unit adopted…

e giving of gage, or sureties, by a defendant in an action of debt, that at a certain day assigned he would take a law, or oath, in open court, that he did not owe the debt, and at the same time bring with him eleven neighbors (called compurgators), who should avow upon their oaths that they believed in their conscienc…

To assign a weight to; to express by a number the probable accuracy of, as an observation. See Weight of observations, under Weight.

A violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening. [Obs.] When the church Was taken with a why-not in the lurch. Hudibras. This game . . . was like to have been lost with a why-not. Nugæ Antiq.