meter

To measure by means of a meter; test by the use of a meter.

One who measures; a measurer: as, a coal-meter; a land-meter.

That which measures, or is used for measuring; specifically, an instrument that records or indicates automatically the quantity, force, or pressure of a fluid passing through it or actuating it: used in composition, as in gas-meter, water-meter (see these words), or alone when the fluid to be measured, as gas or water, is understood.

In fishing, one of the two reinforcing ropes of a seine or gill-net, of which one is attached to the upper edge and carries the floats, and the other to the lower edge and bears the weights or sinkers

In photography, an instrument for determining the time of exposure.

The fundamental unit of length of the French metrical system.

Rhythm in language; rhythmic language as measurable by prosodic times or uttered syllables; more specifically, arrangement of language in a succession of rhythmic movements, readily appreciable as such by the ear; verse, as opposed to prose. Meter in this sense is the subject-matter of the science of metrics

Measured verse or rhythmic language; rhythmic language as determined by or divided into fixed measures.

In music, the division of a composition into parts of equal time-value and of similar essential rhythmic structure.

In Eng. hymnology, a pattern of versification, including the structure of the prosodical feet used, the grouping of those feet into lines, and the grouping of lines into stanzas or strophes, popularly called verses. See foot and versification.