meter

Etymology

Senses 1.1, 2, and 3 were borrowed from French mètre and Latin metrum; see metre for more. Sense 1.2 is a noun derived from mete, from Old English metan (“to measure, mark off”), possibly influencing the other meanings.

noun

1. A device that measures things.
   1. A parking meter or similar device for collecting payment.
      gas meter
   2. (dated) One who metes or measures.
      a labouring coal-meter
2. (American spelling) The base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), conceived as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, and now defined as the distance light will travel in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 seconds.
   Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7
3. (American spelling) The overall rhythm of a song or poem; particularly, the number of beats in a measure or syllables in a line.
   1. (obsolete) A poem.
4. (American spelling) A line above or below a hanging net, to which the net is attached in order to strengthen it.

verb

1. To measure with a metering device.
2. To imprint a postage mark with a postage meter.
3. To regulate the flow of or to deliver in regulated amounts (usually of fluids but sometimes of other things such as anticipation or breath).