Noun

(en noun)

(always meter ) A device that measures things.

(always meter ) A parking meter or similar device for collecting payment.

gas meter

(always meter ) (dated) One who metes or measures.

(chiefly, US, elsewhere metre) The base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), conceived of as 1/10000000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, and now defined as the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299792458 second.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner

, title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter ) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.}}

(chiefly, US, elsewhere metre) (music) An increment of music; the overall rhythm; particularly, the number of beats in a measure.

(chiefly, US, elsewhere metre, prosody) The rhythm pattern in a poem.

(chiefly, US, elsewhere metre) A line above or below a hanging net, to which the net is attached in order to strengthen it.

(obsolete) A poem.

Noun

(en noun)

A device used to produce music.

The violinist was a master of her instrument .

A means or agency for achieving an effect.

* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=

, title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“There the cause of death was soon ascertained?; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument , in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]”}}

A measuring or displaying device.

The instrument detected an increase in radioactivity.

A tool, implement used for manipulation or measurement.

The dentist set down his tray of instruments'''.'' The scientist recorded the temperature with a thermometer but wished he had a more accurate ' instrument ."

(legal) A legal document, such as a contract, deed, trust, mortgage, power, indenture, or will.

A bond indenture is the instrument that gives a bond its value.

Negotiable instruments are the foundation of the debt markets.

(figuratively) A person used as a mere tool for achieving a goal.

* Shakespeare

Or useful serving man and instrument , / To any sovereign state.

* Dryden

The bold are but the instruments of the wise.