Gauge

Pronunciation

• enPR: gāj, IPA: /ˈɡeɪdÊ’/
• Rhymes: -eɪdÊ’

Alternative forms

• gage

Origin

From Middle English gage, gaugen, from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French gauger (compare Modern French jauger from Old French jaugier), from gauge ("gauging rod"), from Frankish *galga ("measuring rod, pole"), from Proto-Germanic *galgô ("pole, stake, cross"), from Proto-Indo-European *g'hAlgh-, *g'hAlg- ("perch, long switch"). Cognate with Old High German galgo, Old Frisian galga, Old English ġealga ("cross-beam, gallows"), Old Norse galgi ("cross-beam, gallows"), Old Norse gelgja ("pole, perch").

Full definition of gauge

Noun

1. A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
• 2007. Zerzan, John. Silence. p. 2.The record of philosophy vis-à-vis silence is generally dismal, as good a gauge as any to its overall failure.
• Burkethe gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt
2. An act of measuring.
3. Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the level, state, dimensions or forms of things; as, a rain gauge; a steam gauge.
4. A thickness of sheet metal or wire designated by any of several numbering schemes.
5. (rail transport) The distance between the rails of a railway.
6. (mathematics, analysis) A semi-norm; a function that assigns a non-negative size to all vectors in a vector space.
7. (knitting) The number of stitches per inch, centimetre, or other unit of distance.
8. (nautical) Relative positions of two or more vessels with reference to the wind.A vessel has the weather gauge of another when on the windward side of it, and the lee gauge when on the lee side of it.
9. (nautical) The depth to which a vessel sinks in the water.
10. (plastering) The quantity of plaster of Paris used with common plaster to make it set more quickly.
11. That part of a shingle, slate, or tile, which is exposed to the weather, when laid; also, one course of such shingles, slates, or tiles.

Derived terms

• broad gauge
• Coulomb gauge
• gauge boson
• gauge field
• gauge theory
• lattice gauge theory
• Lorentz gauge
• narrow gauge
• quantum gauge theory
• rail gauge
• rain gauge
• standard gauge
• Weyl gauge

Verb

1. (transitive) To measure or determine with a gauge; to measure the capacity of.
2. (transitive) To estimate.
3. (transitive) To appraise the character or ability of; to judge of.
• ShakespeareYou shall not gauge me
  By what we do to-night.
4. (textile, transitive) To draw into equidistant gathers by running a thread through it.