METER


Meaning of METER in English

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

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.