size

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Contents

English [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle English sise, syse (regulation, control, limit), from Old French cise, sise, aphetism of assise "assize". Displaced native Middle English grete, grette (size) (from Old English grīetu, grȳtu (size, greatness)).

Noun [edit]

size (plural sizes)

  1. (obsolete except dialectal) An assize. [from 14th c.]
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 560:
      I know you would have women above the law, but it is all a lye; I heard his lordship say at size, that no one is above the law.
  2. (obsolete) A regulation determining the amount of money paid in fees, taxes etc. [14th-18th c.]
  3. (obsolete) A fixed standard for the magnitude, quality, quantity etc. of goods, especially food and drink. [15th-17th c.]
  4. The dimensions or magnitude of a thing; how big something is. [from 15th c.]
    The size of the building seemed to have increased since I was last there.
  5. (obsolete) A regulation, piece of ordinance. [15th c.]
  6. A specific set of dimensions for a manufactured article, especially clothing. [from 16th c.]
    I don't think we have the red one in your size.
  7. (graph theory) A number of edges in a graph. [from 20th c.]
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
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Verb [edit]

size (third-person singular simple present sizes, present participle sizing, simple past and past participle sized)

  1. (transitive) To adjust the size of; to make a certain size.
  2. (transitive) To classify or arrange by size.
  3. (transitive, colloquial) To approximate the dimensions, estimate the size of.
  4. (intransitive) To take greater size; to increase in size.
    • John Donne
      Our desires give them fashion, and so, / As they wax lesser, fall, as they size, grow.
  5. (UK, Cambridge University, obsolete) To order food or drink from the buttery; hence, to enter a score, as upon the buttery book.
Translations [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

Old Italian sisa, a glue used by painters, shortened from assisa, from assiso, to make to sit, to seat, to place.

Noun [edit]

size (plural sizes)

  1. A thin, weak glue used as primer for paper or canvas intended to be painted upon.
  2. Wallpaper paste.
  3. The thickened crust on coagulated blood.
  4. Any viscous substance, such as gilder's varnish.
Translations [edit]

Verb [edit]

size (third-person singular simple present sizes, present participle sizing, simple past and past participle sized)

  1. (transitive) To apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.
Translations [edit]

See also [edit]