Verb

(measur)

To ascertain the quantity of a unit of material via calculated comparison with respect to a standard.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Towards the end of poverty , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}

To estimate the unit size of something.

To judge, value, or appraise.

* (John Milton)

Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite / Thy power! what thought can measure thee?

To obtain or set apart; to mark in even increments.

(rare) To traverse, cross, pass along; to travel over.

* (William Shakespeare)

A true devoted pilgrim is not weary / To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps.

To adjust by a rule or standard.

* Jeremy Taylor

To secure a contented spirit, measure your desires by your fortunes, not your fortunes by your desires.

To allot or distribute by measure; to set off or apart by measure; often with out'' or ''off .

* Bible, Matthew vii. 2

With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

* Addison

That portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun.

Verb

(defin)

To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.

* Sir (Isaac Newton)

Ringsvery distinct and well defined .

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston

, title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}

(obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.).

* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , IV.3:

These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled were in field the chalenge to define .

To express the essential nature of something.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=

, volume=101, issue=3, page=178, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Crinkly Curves , passage=Cantor defined a one-to-one correspondence between the points of the square and the points of the line segment. Every point in the square was associated with a single point in the segment; every point in the segment was matched with a unique point in the square.}}

To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.

To describe, explain, or make definite and clear.

To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jan Sapp)

, volume=100, issue=2, page=164, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Race Finished , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}

(mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.