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Scale vs Scum - What's the difference?

scale | scum |

As nouns the difference between scale and scum

is that scale is (obsolete) a ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending or scale can be 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 or scale can be a device to measure mass or weight while scum is (uncountable) a layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).

As verbs the difference between scale and scum

is that scale is 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 or scale can be to remove the scales of while scum is to remove the layer of scum from (a liquid etc).

scale

English

(wikipedia scale) {, style="float: right; clear:right;" , , }

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ; see scan, ascend, descend, etc.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
  • An ordered numerical sequence used for measurement.
  • Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.
  • Size; scope.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=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.}}
    The Holocaust was insanity on an enormous scale .
    There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.
  • The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
  • This map uses a scale of 1:10.
  • A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced
  • *
  • 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.
  • A means of assigning a magnitude.
  • The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale .
  • (music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
  • A mathematical base for a numeral system.
  • the decimal scale'''; the binary '''scale
  • Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
  • * Milton
  • There is a certain scale of duties which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012
  • , date=May 13 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Man City 3-2 QPR , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=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.}}
    Derived terms
    * Celsius scale * Fahrenheit scale * Kelvin scale * major scale * microscale * milliscale * minor scale * modal scale * scale invariance * scale model * Richter scale * to scale * wage scale * widescale
    Hyponyms
    * (music) tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note, octave interval * (geography) cartographic ratio, resolution, grain, support, focus, extent, range, size
    See also
    * degree * ordinal variable

    Verb

    (scal)
  • 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.
  • To climb to the top of.
  • Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
  • 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.
  • (computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
  • That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.
  • To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Scaling his present bearing with his past.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) scale, from (etyl) escale, from (etyl) or another (etyl) source skala /, (etyl) scaglia.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • * Milton
  • Fish that, with their fins and shining scales , / Glide under the green wave.
  • 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.
  • A pine nut of a pinecone.
  • The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
  • Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
  • Limescale
  • A scale insect
  • The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
  • Derived terms
    * antiscalant

    Verb

    (scal)
  • To remove the scales of.
  • Please scale that fish for dinner.
  • To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
  • The dry weather is making my skin scale .
  • To strip or clear of scale; to descale.
  • to scale the inside of a boiler
  • To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
  • * T. Burnet
  • if all the mountains were scaled , and the earth made even
  • To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
  • Some sandstone scales by exposure.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • 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.
  • (UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
  • To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.
  • (Totten)

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) . Cognate with , as in Etymology 2.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device to measure mass or weight.
  • 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.
  • Usage notes
    * The noun is often used in the plural to denote a single device (originally a pair of scales had two pans).

    scum

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).
  • (uncountable) A greenish water vegetation (such as algae), usually found floating on the surface of ponds
  • The topmost liquid layer of a cesspool or septic tank.
  • (uncountable, slang, chiefly US) semen
  • (countable, derogatory, slang) A reprehensible person or persons.
  • (countable, derogatory, slang) police officer(s)
  • Synonyms

    * (layer of impurities) dross, impurities * (layer of impurities on molten metal) cinder, scoriae, slag * (person considered reprehensible) bastard

    Verb

    (scumm)
  • To remove the layer of scum from (a liquid etc.).
  • To remove (something) as scum.
  • *1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.vii:
  • *:Some scumd the drosse, that from the metall came; / Some stird the molten owre with ladles great.
  • To become covered with scum.
  • *1769 , Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English House-keeper , pp.321-322:
  • *:Take the smallest Cucumbers you can get, and as free from Spots as possible, put them into a strong Salt and Water for nine or ten Days, or 'till they are quite Yellow, and stir them twice a Day at least, or they will scum over, and grow soft
  • (obsolete) To scour (the land, sea etc.).
  • *:
  • *:SOo by Merlyns aduys ther were sente fore rydars to skumme the Countreye / & they mette with the fore rydars of the north / and made hem to telle whiche wey the hooste cam / and thenne they told it to Arthur / and by kyng Ban and Bors counceill they lete brenne and destroye alle the contrey afore them there they shold ryde
  • *Milton
  • *:Wandering up and down without certain seat, they lived by scumming those seas and shores as pirates.
  • (obsolete) To gather together, as scum.
  • *1815 , Rudolf Ackerman and Frederic Shoberl, The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics :
  • *:A great majority of the members are scummed together from the Jacobinical dregs of former periods of the revolution.
  • To startscum or savescum.
  • Anagrams

    * *