Definition of "scale"

scale¹

/skeɪl/

noun
plural scales
1. (obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
2. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement; means of assigning a magnitude.
3. Size; scope.
  Quotations
  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.
  2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 November 2012, page 23
4. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.
5. A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
  Quotations
  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.
  1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, page ix
6. (music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
7. A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.
8. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
  Quotations
  There is a certain scale of duties […] which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion.
  1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], book
  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.
  2012 May 13, Phil McNulty, “Man City 3-2 QPR”, in BBC Sport‎
9. A standard amount of money to be received by a performer or writer, negotiated by a union.
verb
third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled
1. (transitive) 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.
2. (transitive) To climb to the top of.
  Quotations
  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.
  1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,
  A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it.
  1932, Dorothy L Sayers, chapter 1, in Have his Carcase
3. (intransitive, computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.
4. (transitive) To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.
  Quotations
  Scaling his present bearing with his past.
  c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]
  The kitchen-dining-buffet car scales 49.2 tons.
  1962 July, G. Freeman Allen, “The New "Rheingold"”, in Modern Railways, page 25

scale²

/skeɪl/

noun
plural scales
1. 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.
  Quotations
  Fish that, with their fins and shining scales, / Glide under the green wave.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
2. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
3. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
4. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard protective layers forming a pinecone that flare when mature to release pine nut seeds.
5. The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
6. Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
7. Limescale.
8. A scale insect.
9. The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.
verb
third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled
1. (transitive) To remove the scales of.
2. (intransitive) To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.
3. (transitive) To strip or clear of scale; to descale.
4. (transitive) To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
  Quotations
  if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even
  1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth
5. (intransitive) To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.
  Quotations
  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.
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
6. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
7. (transitive) To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.
  Quotations
  cannons […] caused to be scaled and loaded
  1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […]

scale³

/skeɪl/

noun
plural scales
1. A device to measure mass or weight.
2. Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.

Definition of "scale"

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scale3

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