I. me ‧ ter 1 /ˈmiːtə $ -ər/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Sense 1-3: Date: 1800-1900 ; Origin: ⇨ ↑ -meter ]
1 . a machine that measures and shows the amount of something you have used or the amount of money that you must pay
water/gas/electricity meter
A man came to read the electricity meter.
The taxi driver left the meter running while I ran in to pick up my bags.
2 . a machine that measures the level of something
sound-level/light etc meter
3 . ( also parking meter ) a machine which you put money into when you park your car next to it
4 . the American spelling of ↑ metre
II. meter 2 BrE AmE verb [transitive]
to measure how much of something is used, and how much you must pay for it, by using a meter:
All our water is metered now.
III. me ‧ tre S2 W3 BrE AmE British English , meter American English /ˈmiːtə $ -ər/ noun
[ Sense 1: Date: 1700-1800 ; Language: French ; Origin: mètre , from Greek metron 'measure' ]
[ Sense 2: Date: 800-900 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: metrum , from Greek metron ]
1 . [countable] ( written abbreviation m ) the basic unit for measuring length in the ↑ metric system
2 . [uncountable and countable] the arrangement of sounds in poetry into patterns of strong and weak beats ⇨ rhythm