scale

(obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.

Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.

The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale.

An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.

On an enormous scale was a blood-feast.

There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.

We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.

2012 January 14, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2012-11-14, page 23:

This map uses a scale of 1:10.

The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.

Even though precision can be carried to an extreme, the scales which now are drawn in (and usually connected to an appropriate figure by an arrow) will allow derivation of meaningful measurements.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page ix:

A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.

(music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.

the decimal scale, the binary scale

A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.

There is a certain scale of duties […] which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.

1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book:

City's players and supporters travelled from one end of the emotional scale to the other in those vital seconds, providing a truly remarkable piece of football theatre and the most dramatic conclusion to a season in Premier League history.

2012 May 13, Phil McNulty, “Man City 3-2 QPR”, in BBC Sport:

Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.

Sally wasn't the star of the show, so she was glad to be paid scale.

A standard amount of money to be paid for a service, for example union-negotiated amounts received by a performer or writer; similar to wage scale or pay grade.

→ Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

mittakaava

line or bar used to indicate measurement

سُلَّم

gradation; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order

From Middle English scale, from Latin scāla, usually in plural scālae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for *skand-slā, from scandō (“I climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. Doublet of scala.


scale

We should scale that up by a factor of 10.

(transitive) To change the size of something whilst maintaining proportion; especially to change a process in order to produce much larger amounts of the final product.

Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.

At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days of mad effort—of maniacal effort—I scaled them. I built crude ladders; I wedged sticks in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds and finger-holds with my long knife; but at last I scaled them. Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern.

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it.

1932, Dorothy L Sayers, chapter 1, in Have his Carcase:

The dead leap at the throat, destroy
The meaning of the day; dark forms
Have scaled your walls, and spies betray
Old secrets to amorphous swarms.

1941, Theodore Roethke, “Feud”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 4:

That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.

(intransitive, computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.

Scaling his present bearing with his past.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

The kitchen-dining-buffet car scales 49.2 tons.

1962 July, G. Freeman Allen, “The New "Rheingold"”, in Modern Railways, page 25:

(transitive) To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.

en-verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

scales (present singular third-person)
scaling (participle present)
scaled (participle past)
scaled (past)


scale

Fish that, with their fins and shining scales, / Glide under the green wave.

1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard pieces of keratin covering the skin of an animal, particularly a fish or reptile.

A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.

A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.

Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard protective layers forming a pinecone that flare when mature to release pine nut seeds.

(uncountable) The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.

The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.

(uncountable, US) An infestation of scale insects on a plant; commonly thought of as, or mistaken for, a disease.

en-noun

scale (countable and uncountable, plural scales)

→ Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

ラㇺラㇺ

keratin pieces covering the skin of certain animals

ərp

From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish and/or Old High German skala, from Proto-Germanic *skalō. Cognate with Old English sċealu (“shell, husk”), whence the modern doublet shale. Further cognate with Dutch schaal, German Schale, French écale.


scale

Please scale that fish for dinner.

The dry weather is making my skin scale.

(intransitive) To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.

to scale the inside of a boiler

(transitive) To strip or clear of scale; to descale.

1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth
if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even

(transitive) To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.

Some sandstone scales by exposure.

Those that cast their shell are the lobster and crab; the old skins are found, but the old shells never; so it is likely that they scale off.

1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

(intransitive) To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.

cannons […]caused to be scaled and loaded

1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

(transitive) To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.


scale

After the long, lazy winter I was afraid to get on the scale.

Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.

→ Japanese: スケール (sukēru)

From Middle English scale, from Old Norse skál (“bowl”) from Proto-Germanic *skēlō. Compare Danish skål (“bowl, cup”), Dutch schaal, German Schale, Old High German scāla, Old English scealu (“cup”).


scale

English: scale

Yola: skaulès, scaules (plural)


scale

desctree

English: scale
→ Japanese: スケール (sukēru)


scale

From Old Norse skál (“bowl”) from Proto-Germanic *skēlō.