{ Me"ter, Me"tre } (?), n.
[OE. metre, F. mètre, L. metrum, fr. Gr.
?; akin to Skr. mā to measure. See Mete to
measure.] 1.Rhythmical arrangement of syllables
or words into verses, stanzas, strophes, etc.; poetical measure,
depending on number, quantity, and accent of syllables; rhythm;
measure; verse; also, any specific rhythmical arrangements; as, the
Horatian meters; a dactylic meter.
The only strict antithesis to prose is
meter.
Wordsworth.
2.A poem. [Obs.] Robynson (More's
Utopia).
3.A measure of length, equal to 39.37
English inches, the standard of linear measure in the metric system
of weights and measures. It was intended to be, and is very nearly,
the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the north
pole, as ascertained by actual measurement of an arc of a meridian.
See Metric system, under Metric.
Common meter(Hymnol.), four iambic
verses, or lines, making a stanza, the first and third having each
four feet, and the second and fourth each three feet; -- usually
indicated by the initials C.M. -- Long meter(Hymnol.), iambic verses or lines of four feet each, four
verses usually making a stanza; -- commonly indicated by the initials
L. M. -- Short meter(Hymnol.),
iambic verses or lines, the first, second, and fourth having each
three feet, and the third four feet. The stanza usually consists of
four lines, but is sometimes doubled. Short meter is indicated
by the initials S. M.
Me"ter (?), n. [From Mete to
measure.] 1.One who, or that which, metes or
measures. See Coal-meter.
2.An instrument for measuring, and usually
for recording automatically, the quantity measured.
Dry meter, a gas meter having measuring
chambers, with flexible walls, which expand and contract like bellows
and measure the gas by filling and emptying. -- Wet
meter, a gas meter in which the revolution of a
chambered drum in water measures the gas passing through it.
Me"ter, n.A line above or below a
hanging net, to which the net is attached in order to strengthen
it.