1. A settled quantity or allowance. See Assize. To scant my sizes.
2. (Science: engineering) An allowance of food and drink from the buttery, aside from the regular dinner at commons; corresponding to battel at Oxford.
3. Extent of superficies or volume; bulk; bigness; magnitude; as, the size of a tree or of a mast; the size of a ship or of a rock.
4. Figurative bulk; condition as to rank, ability, character, etc.; as, the office demands a man of larger size. Men of a less size and quality. (L'Estrange) The middling or lower size of people. (swift)
5. A conventional relative measure of dimension, as for shoes, gloves, and other articles made up for sale.
6. An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, used for ascertaining the size of pearls. Size roll, a small piese of parchment added to a roll. Size stick, a measuring stick used by shoemakers for ascertaining the size of the foot.
Synonym: dimension, bigness, largeness, greatness, magnitude.
Origin: Abbrev. From assize. See Assize, and cf. Size glue.
1. To fix the standard of. To size weights and measures.
2. To adjust or arrange according to size or bulk. Specifically: To take the height of men, in order to place them in the ranks acco
rding to their stature.
(Science: chemical) To sift, as pieces of ore or metal, in order to separate the finer from the coarser parts.
3. To swell; to increase the bulk of.
4. (Science: mechanics) To bring or adjust anything exactly to a required dimension, as by cutting. To size up, to estimate or ascertain the character and ability of. See 4th Size. We had to size up our fellow legislators. (The Century)