Chapter Metempiricism to Methylate of M by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Meter
(Me"ter) n. [From Mete to measure.]

1. One who, or that which, metes or measures. See Coal-meter.

2. An instrument for measuring, and usually for recording automatically, the quantity measured.

Dry meter, a gas meter having measuring chambers, with flexible walls, which expand and contract like bellows and measure the gas by filling and emptying. — Wet meter, a gas meter in which the revolution of a chambered drum in water measures the gas passing through it.

Meter
(Me"ter), n. A line above or below a hanging net, to which the net is attached in order to strengthen it.

Meter
(Me"ter, Me"tre) n. [OE. metre, F. mètre, L. metrum, fr. Gr. akin to Skr. ma to measure. See Mete to measure.]

1. Rhythmical arrangement of syllables or words into verses, stanzas, strophes, etc.; poetical measure, depending on number, quantity, and accent of syllables; rhythm; measure; verse; also, any specific rhythmical arrangements; as, the Horatian meters; a dactylic meter.

The only strict antithesis to prose is meter.

Wordsworth.

2. A poem. [Obs.] Robynson (More's Utopia).

3. A measure of length, equal to 39.37 English inches, the standard of linear measure in the metric system of weights and measures. It was intended to be, and is very nearly, the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the north pole, as ascertained by actual measurement of an arc of a meridian. See Metric system, under Metric.

Common meter (Hymnol.), four iambic verses, or lines, making a stanza, the first and third having each four feet, and the second and fourth each three feet; — usually indicated by the initials C.M. — Long meter (Hymnol.), iambic verses or lines of four feet each, four verses usually making a stanza; — commonly indicated by the initials L. M. — Short meter (Hymnol.), iambic verses or lines, the first, second, and fourth having each three feet, and the third four feet. The stanza usually consists of four lines, but is sometimes doubled. Short meter is indicated by the initials S. M.

Meterage
(Me"ter*age) n. [See 1st Meter.] The act of measuring, or the cost of measuring.

Metergram
(Me"ter*gram`) n. (Mech.) A measure of energy or work done; the power exerted in raising one gram through the distance of one meter against gravitation.

Metewand
(Mete"wand`) n. [Mete to measure + wand.] A measuring rod. Ascham.

Meteyard
(Mete"yard`) n. [AS. metgeard. See Mete to measure, and Yard stick.] A yard, staff, or rod, used as a measure. [Obs.] Shak.

Meth
(Meth) n. See Meathe. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Methæmoglobin
(Met`hæm*o*glo"bin) n. [Pref. met- + hæmoglobin.] (Physiol. Chem.) A stable crystalline compound obtained by the decomposition of hemoglobin. It is found in old blood stains.

Methal
(Meth"al) n. [Myristic + ether + alcohol.] (Chem.) A white waxy substance, found in small quantities in spermaceti as an ethereal salt of several fatty acids, and regarded as an alcohol of the methane series.