Scale meaning

skāl
Scale means to climb up something or to remove in thin layers.

An example of scale is rock climbing.

An example of scale is to remove the outside layer of rigid, overlapping plates on a fish.

verb
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To come off in scales or layers; flake.
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A dry thin flake of epidermis shed from the skin.
noun
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A skin lesion or lesions marked by such flakes.
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A scale insect.
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A plant disease or infestation caused by scale insects.
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A flake of rust.
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To remove in layers or scales.

Scaled off the old paint.

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An ascending or descending collection of pitches proceeding by a specified scheme of intervals.
noun
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To cover with scales; encrust.
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To throw (a thin flat object) so that it soars through the air or skips along the surface of water.
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To remove (tartar) from tooth surfaces with a pointed instrument.
verb
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To cheat; swindle.
verb
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To ride on (a tram, for example) without paying the fare.
verb
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To become encrusted.
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A progressive classification, as of size, amount, importance, or rank.

Judging divers' performances on a scale of 1 to 10.

noun
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A relative level or degree.

Entertained on a lavish scale.

noun
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A minimum wage fixed by contract.

Musicians playing a benefit concert for scale.

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A system of notation in which the values of numerical expressions are determined by their places relative to the chosen base of the system.

The decimal scale.

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A system of ordered marks at fixed intervals used as a reference standard in measurement.

A ruler whose scale is in inches.

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An instrument or device bearing such marks.
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A standard of measurement or judgment; a criterion.
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A proportion used in determining the dimensional relationship of a representation to that which it represents.

A world map with a scale of 1:4,560,000.

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A calibrated line, as on a map or an architectural plan, indicating such a proportion.
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Proper proportion.

A house that seemed out of scale with its surroundings.

noun
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To climb up or over; ascend.

Scaled the peak.

verb
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To make in accord with a particular proportion or scale.

Scale the model to be one tenth of actual size.

verb
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To alter according to a standard or by degrees; adjust in calculated amounts.

Scaled down their demands; scaled back the scheduled pay increase.

verb
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To estimate or measure the quantity of lumber in (logs or uncut trees).
verb
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To climb; ascend.
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To rise in steps or stages.
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An instrument or machine for weighing.
noun
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Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance.
noun
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To weigh with a scale.
verb
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To have a given weight, as determined by a scale.

Cargo that scales 11 tons.

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A system of numerical notation.

The binary scale.

noun
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A series of tones arranged in a sequence of rising or falling pitches in accordance with any of various systems of intervals; esp., all of such a series contained in one octave.
noun
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A ladder or flight of stairs.
noun
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Any means of ascent.
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A series of marks along a line, at regular or graduated intervals, used in measuring or registering something.

The scale of a thermometer.

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Any instrument or ruler marked in this manner.
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The proportion that a map, model, etc. bears to the thing that it represents; ratio between the dimensions of a representation and those of the object.

A scale of one inch to a mile.

noun
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A line marked off on a map to indicate this ratio or proportion.
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A system of grouping or classifying in a series of steps or degrees according to a standard of relative size, amount, rank, etc.

The social scale, a wage scale.

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A progressive graduated series, as of psychological or educational tests or scores.
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A point, grade, level, or degree in such a series.
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Any relative degree or extent.

Winter storm damage on a large scale.

noun
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To regulate, make, or set according to a scale.
verb
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To measure by or as by a scale.
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To estimate the amount of lumber that will be yielded by (a log, tree, etc.)
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To climb up or over; go up by or as by a ladder or by clambering.
verb
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To reach or surmount (specified heights)
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To climb; go up.
verb
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To go up in a graduated series.
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Any of the structurally similar thin plates on birds' legs or certain insects' wings.
noun
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Any thin, flaky or platelike layer or piece, as of dry skin, mail armor, etc.
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A flaky film of oxide that forms on heated or rusted metals.
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A coating that forms on the inside of boilers, kettles, or other metal containers that heat liquids.
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Any greatly reduced scalelike leaf or bract; esp., such a modified leaf covering and protecting the bud of a seed plant.
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The single, round plate secreted by a scale insect.
noun
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To strip or scrape scales from.
verb
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To remove in thin layers; pare down.
verb
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To cause scales to form on; cover with scales.
verb
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To throw (a thin, flat object) so that its edge cuts the air or so that it skips along the surface of water.
verb
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To remove (tartar) from the teeth with a sharp instrument.
verb
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To flake or peel off in scales.
verb
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To become covered with scale or scales.
verb
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Either of the shallow dishes or pans of a balance.
noun
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Any weighing machine.
noun
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To weigh in scales.
verb
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To have a weight of.
verb
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To be weighed.
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One of the many small hard dermal or epidermal structures that characteristically form the external covering of fishes and reptiles and certain mammals, such as pangolins.
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A similar part in other animals, such as one of the thin flat overlapping structures that cover the wings of butterflies and moths.
noun
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A dry thin flake of epidermis shed from the skin.
noun
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A skin lesion or lesions marked by such flakes.
noun
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To come off in scales or layers; flake.
verb
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To remove tartar from tooth surfaces with a pointed instrument.
verb
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One of the small thin plates forming the outer covering of fish, reptiles, and certain other animals.
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A similar part, such as one of the minute structures overlapping to form the covering on the wings of butterflies and moths.
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A small, thin, usually dry plant part, such as one of the protective leaves that cover a tree bud or one of the structures that contain the reproductive organs on the cones of a conifer.
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A plant disease caused by scale insects.
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An ordered system of numbering or indexing that is used as a reference standard in measurement, in which each number corresponds to some physical quantity. Some scales, such as temperature scales, have equal intervals; other scales, such as the Richter scale, are arranged as a geometric progression.
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An instrument or a machine for weighing.
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(1) To resize a device, object or system. With regard to increases, "scale vertically" or "scale up" refers to expanding a single machine's capability. To "scale horizontally" or "scale out" refers to adding more machines.With regard to decreases, the term is often used with cutting-edge chip technologies. For example, "this memory scales with CMOS" means that the memory architecture takes advantage of the increasing miniaturization in CMOS chip fabrication by becoming smaller as well. See at scale, upconvert and scalable.
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Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.

noun
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The Holocaust was insanity on an enormous scale.

There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.

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The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.

This map uses a scale of 1:10.

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

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

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(music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
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A mathematical base for a numeral system.

The decimal scale; the binary scale.

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

We should scale that up by a factor of 10.

verb
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To climb to the top of.

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

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

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

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To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
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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.
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A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
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A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
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A pine nut of a pinecone.
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The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
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Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
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A scale insect.
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The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
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To remove the scales of.

Please scale that fish for dinner.

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

The dry weather is making my skin scale.

verb
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To strip or clear of scale; to descale.

To scale the inside of a boiler.

verb
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To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
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(intransitive) To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.

Some sandstone scales by exposure.

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(UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
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To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.

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

noun
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Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.
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The definition of a scale is an outer protective layer made up of flat, rigid, overlapping plates.

An example of scale is the skin of a fish.

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Scale is defined as a system or series of marks used for measuring or registering.

An example of scale is what someone would use to figure out the length of something.

An example of scale is what someone would use to find out how much they weigh.

noun
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A small, thin, often flattened plant structure, such as one of the modified leaves that cover a tree bud or one of the structures that contain the reproductive organs on the cones of a conifer.
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A hard mineral coating that forms on the inside surface of boilers, kettles, and other containers in which water is repeatedly heated.
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One of the many small hard dermal or epidermal structures that characteristically form the external covering of fishes and reptiles and certain mammals, such as pangolins.
noun
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A similar part in other animals, such as one of the thin flat overlapping structures that cover the wings of butterflies and moths.
noun
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A flaky oxide film formed on a metal, as on iron, that has been heated to high temperatures.
noun
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To clear or strip of scale or scales.

Scale and clean the fish.

verb
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Origin of scale

From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish or another Old High German source skala /scāla. Cognate with Old English scealu (“shell, husk") (See shale and shell). compare French écale, écaille, Italian scaglia.

Sentence Examples

  • A geological map of the whole continent, on the scale of 50 m.

  • Life existed at a scale smaller than the eye could see.

  • Besides, the bathroom scale had reported a two-pound drop that morning.

  • By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last.

  • Like a TV star that doesn't scale back his expenses after his show is cancelled, these benefits expand, not contract, during periods of economic decline, for two main reasons.

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Words near scale in the Dictionary