dimensionn.
/dɪˈmɛnʃən/ a. The action of measuring, measurement. Obsolete.
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the world > relative properties > measurement > [noun]
i-metOE
metingc1350
measurea1382
measuringa1398
commensuration1555
dimension1555
mensuration?a1560
measurement1590
dimensuration1593
admeasurement1610
admensuration1670
evaluation1780
quantification1851
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 243 Accordynge to the ordinarie accoumpte and dimension which the pylotes and Cosmographers doo make.
1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. I4 Things infinite I see Brooke no dimension.
1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. v. 65 If a man pursue it [sc. geometry] not only for mechanicall dimension, but that he may by the helps thereof ascend [etc.].
1793 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §97 Taking such dimensions as would enable me to make an accurate model..of the rock.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > duration of notes > proportion of notes or rhythm > [noun]
proportiona1387
measurea1525
mode1561
casure1565
moodc1570
rhythm1576
rhyme1586
stotc1590
dimension1597
sextupla1597
timing1597
rhythmus1603
cadence1605
time1609
cadency1628
movement1683
lilt1841
metre1873
tempus1889
riddim1943
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 13 Phi. What call they time? Ma. The dimension of the Breefe by semibreeues.
1635 R. Brathwait tr. M. Silesio Arcadian Princesse i. 165 Harmonious reports in these Musicall dimensions.
2. figurative.1661 E. Hickeringill Jamaica 51 The Expedition against Hispaniola;..The Dimensions of this great Preparation vastly exceeding the difficulties.1676 M. Hale Contempl. Moral & Divine i. 106 The Afflictions of his Soul..were of a higher Dimension in the Garden.1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 17 Oct. 2/3 That passion for athletics which in Oxford has now almost reached the dimensions of a mania.† b. transferred. Extension in time, duration.
a. Measurable or spatial extent of any kind, as length, breadth, thickness, area, volume; measurement, measure, magnitude, size. (Now commonly in plural: cf. proportions.) Also figurative. Magnitude, extent, degree (of an abstract thing).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > [noun]
greatness1381
measurea1382
quantitya1387
muchnessa1398
sizea1400
largec1400
micklec1400
moisonc1400
of suingc1400
bignessc1475
assize1481
proportions1481
bodya1500
dimension1529
measuring1529
wideness1535
bind1551
corporance1570
magnitude1570
mickledom1596
amplitude1599
breadth1609
extendure1613
extension1614
extent1623
extensure1631
dimense1632
dimensity1655
bulkiness1674
bulksomeness1674
admeasurement1754
calliper1819
acreage1846
1529 T. More Dialogue Heresyes ii, in Wks. 188/1 Though thei be not cyrcumscribed in place, for lack of bodily dymencion and measuring, yet are..angels..diffinitively so placed where thei be for the time.
1596 J. Davies Orchestra xcv. sig. C2v Whose quick eyes doe explore The iust dimension both of earth and heau'n.
1615 J. Stephens Satyrical Ess. 292 Confounding (like a bad Logician) the forme and the dimention.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iii. xxxiv. 208 Whatsoever has dimension, is Body.
1660 tr. I. Barrow Euclide's Elements i. 29 The dimension of any parallelogram..is found out by this theoreme.
1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 6 He will never rightly describe the dimensions of solid Bodies..his Circles will seem Ovals in Breadth, and his Ovals Circles.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 893 A dark Illimitable Ocean without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth, And time and place are lost. View more context for this quotation
?1710 Squire Bickerstaff Detected 4 I..was surpriz'd to find my Gentleman..measuring my Walls, and taking the Dimensions of the Room.
1757 E. Burke Philos. Enq. Sublime & Beautiful ii. §7. 51 Greatness of dimension, is a powerful cause of the sublime.
1772 S. Denne & W. Shrubsole Hist. Rochester 44 All the beams..ought to be of large dimensions.
1850 R. W. Emerson Shakspeare in Representative Men v. 204 That imagination which dilates the closet he writes in to the world's dimension.
1893 Law Times 95 104/2 Posts of the dimensions of 3 in. by 2½ in.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > [noun]
lengtha1240
date?1316
durationc1384
hautesse1399
quantity?a1425
periodc1475
tracta1513
allowance1526
continuance1530
wideness1535
continue1556
protense1590
countenance1592
stay1595
standing1600
dimension1605
longanimity1607
longinquity1607
insisture1609
existence1615
unprivationa1628
continuity1646
protension1654
measure1658
course1665
contention1666
propagation1741
protensity1886
1605 L. Andrewes Serm. II. 170 The cross..is mors prolixa, a death of dimensions, a death long in dying.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) iv. ii. 308 We have no reason to imagin that the sixth day was of any other dimension than the seventh day.
c. figurative. Any of the component aspects of a particular situation, etc., esp. one newly discovered; an attribute of, or way of viewing, an abstract entity. Cf. aspect n. 9, 12.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > incompleteness > part of whole > [noun] > constituent part or component > aspect of an abstract entity
visagec1374
sidea1393
respecta1398
facet1808
prong1859
parameter1927
dimension1929
1929 R. S. Lynd & H. M. Lynd Middletown xviii. 263 Like the automobile, the motion picture is more to Middletown than simply a new way of doing an old thing; it has added new dimensions to the city's leisure.
1952 Times 1 Aug. 7/3 It is in helping nations to provide the material for their own or for one another's defence, instead of having it provided direct from America, that the value of off-shore purchasing lies. Here, in another dimension, is the principle of ‘trade, not aid’.
1956 R. Macaulay Towers of Trebizond xxv. 287 A dimension has been taken out of my life, leaving it flat, not rich and rounded.
1961 A. O. J. Cockshut Imagination of Charles Dickens xi. 158 The religious dimension, which would have given coherence and deeper meaning to the withered and touching scraps of virtue displayed by Flora and Mrs. Plornish, and even by Mrs. Clennam—a triumph of fairness—this is absent.
1973 P. White Eye of Storm vi. 237 This work of ours..will add another dimension to the art of theatre.
1985 Times 24 Jan. 14/4 The effect of ‘sub-clinical’ nutrient deficiencies too small to cause acute illness is another elusive dimension.
3. Mathematics.
a. Geometry. A mode of linear measurement, magnitude, or extension, in a particular direction; usually as co-existing with similar measurements or extensions in other directions.The three dimensions of a body, or of ordinary space, are length, breadth, and thickness (or depth); a surface has only two dimensions (length and breadth); a line only one (length). Here the notion of measurement or magnitude is commonly lost, and the word denotes merely a particular mode of spatial extension. Modern mathematicians have speculated as to the possibility of more than three dimensions of space.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > [noun] > a) dimension(s)
dimension1413
quantity1590
metings1674
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > longitudinal extent > [noun]
lenghc888
longnessOE
length1154
dimension1413
sideness1422
longitude?a1425
prolixity?a1425
distance1582
longity1604
distent1613
protension1704
sidth1831
the world > relative properties > number > geometry > geometric space > [noun] > division or marking of
dimension1413
1413 Pilgr. Sowle (1483) v. xiv. 107 Ther is no body parfit withouten thre dymensions, that is breede, lengthe, and depnesse.
c1430 Art Nombryng (1922) 14 A lyne hathe but one dymensioun that is to sey after the lengthe..a superficialle thynge hathe .2. dimensions, þat is to sey lengthe and brede.
1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. i. f. 1 There pertaine to quantitie three dimensions, length, bredth, & thicknes.
1625 N. Carpenter Geogr. Delineated ii. ii. 14 These two Dimensions..are length and breadth, whereof euery plaine figure, or superficies consists.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature I. 100 All physical magnitude must have three dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness.
1858 W. Whewell Hist. Sci. Ideas ii. viii. §4–5 Time is conceived as a quantity of one dimension..Indeed the analogy between time, and space of one dimension, is so close, that the same terms are applied to both ideas.
1858 W. Whewell Hist. Sci. Ideas ii. vi The eye..sees length and breadth, but no third dimension. In order to know that there are solids, we must infer as well as see.
1873 W. K. Clifford Pure Sci. in Contemp. Rev. Oct. (1874) 716 Out of space of two dimensions, as we call it, I have made space of three dimensions.
1878 B. Stewart & P. G. Tait Unseen Universe vii. §220. 221 Suppose our (essentially three-dimensional) matter to be the mere skin or boundary of an Unseen whose matter has four dimensions.
b. Algebra. Since the product of two, or of three, quantities, each denoting a length (i.e. a magnitude of one dimension), represents an area or a volume (i.e. a magnitude of two, or of three, dimensions), such products themselves are said to be of so many dimensions; and generally, the number of dimensions of a product is the number of the (unknown or variable) quantities contained in it as factors (known or constant quantities being reckoned of no dimensions); any power of a quantity being of the dimensions denoted by its index. (Thus x3, x2y, xyz are each of three dimensions.) The dimensions of an expression or equation are those of the term of highest dimensions in it. (The number of dimensions corresponds to the degree of a quantity or equation: see degree n. 13.)
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1557 R. Record Whetstone of Witte sig. Hii The nomber that doeth amounte thereof (3 × 3 × 3) hath gotten 3. dimensiones, whiche properly belongeth to a bodie, or sound forme. And therfore is it called a Cube, or Cubike nomber.
1690 W. Leybourn Cursus mathematicus 334 Every Power hath so many Dimensions as the Letters wherewith it is written.
1706 W. Jones Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 40 The Quantity produc'd by the Multiplication of Two, Three, etc. Quantities, is said to be of Two, Three, etc. Dimensions.
1806 C. Hutton Course Math. (ed. 5) I. 190 To find the Greatest Common Measure of the Terms of a Fraction..Range the quantities according to the dimensions of some letters.
c1865 J. Wylde Circle of Sci. I. 476/1 When the..equations are..of two dimensions.
c. [ < French dimension (J. B. J. Fourier Théorie anal. de la Chaleur (1822) ii. §ix. 154).] The power to which any one of the fundamental quantities or units is raised in the expression defining a derived quantity or unit in terms of them; also (in plural), all the fundamental quantities in such an expression, each raised to its appropriate power, which together show how the unit of the derived quantity depends on the fundamental units; method of dimensions, dimensional analysis. The ‘fundamental quantities’ are usually taken to be mass, length, and time, with the addition of one or more other quantities in certain cases (such as electrical and magnetic phenomena).
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1864 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1863 132 The value of a force is directly proportional to a length and a mass, but inversely proportional to the square of a time. This is expressed by saying that the dimensions of a force are LM/T2.
1877 Ld. Rayleigh Theory of Sound I. iii. 47 From the necessity of a complete enumeration of all the quantities on which the required result may depend, the method of dimensions is somewhat dangerous.
1878 A. Freeman tr. J. B. J. Fourier Anal. Theory Heat ii. 128 Every undetermined magnitude or constant has one dimension proper to itself, and..the terms of one and the same equation could not be compared, if they had not the same exponent of dimension. We have introduced this consideration..in order to make our definitions more exact, and to serve to verify the analysis.
1878 A. Freeman tr. J. B. J. Fourier Anal. Theory Heat ii. 129 The dimensions of x, t, v with respect to the unit of time are 0, 1, 0, and those of K, h, c are −1, −1, 0.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 736/2 Velocity is of +1 dimension in length and −1 dimension in time.
1925 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 50 32 The dimensions of the viscosity, η, are ML−1T−1, of the density, ρ, ML−3, whilst σ/σ′ is of no dimensions.
1925 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 50 31 Much information can be obtained concerning F by means of the method of dimensions.
1933 A. W. Porter (title) The method of dimensions.
1960 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. IV. 197/2 Quantities with the same dimensions can be expressed in the same units.
1964 H. S. Hvistendahl Engin. Units i. 7 For example, in the case of force, the term ‘dimensions’ is now generally understood to mean LMT−2, and not merely 1, 1, −2.
1969 L. Young Syst. Units Electr. & Magn. i. 7 Area has dimensions of length squared; denoting ‘dimensions of’ by square brackets, we write [A] = [L]2.
1970 Nature 29 Aug. 935/2 In SI units the constant μ0 = 4π × 10−7 is indispensable in many formulae, if the dimensions are to balance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > [noun]
featurec1325
making1340
staturec1380
statea1387
bonea1400
figurec1400
makec1425
corpulence1477
corsage1481
makdom1488
mouldc1550
corporature1555
frame1566
dimension1600
limit1608
set1611
timber1612
compact1646
taille1663
fabric1695
moulding1815
physique1826
tournure1827
build1832
form1849
body type1866
body build1907
somatotype1940
size1985
the world > life > the body > part of body > [noun]
limbc1000
partyc1300
feature1393
member?a1400
partc1400
dimension1600
site1861
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. i. 55 Hath not a Iewe hands, organs, dementions, sences, affections, passions.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear ii. 7 My dementions are as well compact, my mind as generous, and my shape as true. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) i. v. 250 I..know him noble..And in dimension, and the shape of nature, A gracious person. View more context for this quotation
1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect i. viii. 28 The Humbird is..no bigger than a Hornet, yet hath all the demensions of a Bird, as bill, and wings, with quills, spider-like legges, small clawes.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 793 In thir own dimensions like themselves The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat. View more context for this quotation
Compounds
dimension lines n. straight lines usually having an arrow at each end, indicating the parts or lines to which the figured dimensions refer in a technical drawing. dimension-lumber n., dimension-timber n., dimension-stone n. i.e. that which is cut to specified dimensions or size. dimension-work n. masonry built of ‘dimension-stones’. (Chiefly U.S.)
ΚΠ
a1862 H. D. Thoreau Cape Cod (1865) vii. 120 The modern houses built of what is called ‘dimension timber’, imported from Maine, all ready to be set up.
1874 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Dimension Lumber, lumber sawed to specific sizes to order.
1887 D. A. Low Introd. Machine Drawing 5 Dimension lines and centre lines are best put in of different colour.
1902 P. Marshall Metal Working Tools 18 The marking of dimension lines on metal surfaces is generally done with a steel scriber.
1927 G. E. Draycott Technical Drawing xii. 184 No dimension line should run closer than ¼″ to a line to which it is parallel.
1961 H. F. Bellis & W. A. Schmidt Archit. Drafting xiii. 81/2 Use a 2H pencil for extension and dimension lines.
Draft additions September 2018
Mathematics. Originally: the minimum number of independent coordinates needed to specify a point of a particular geometric or topological space. In later use also more generally: any of various quantities assigned to certain types of space or object as a measure of a property analogous to size or extent.Frequently with modifying word, as Hausdorff dimension, Krull dimension, etc.One of the most commonly encountered notions of dimension in this sense is that of a vector space, in which context the dimension is the number of vectors required to form a basis (basis n. Additions) for that space.
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1914 F. E. Wood Coordinate Syst. in One & Two Dimensions (M.A. thesis, Univ. of Kansas) 8 The number of coordinates necessary to determine the given r-space will equal the dimension of the n-space when the r-space is taken as the element.
1946 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 59 24 Any closed subset of E has a Hausdorff dimension of order α + ε equal to zero.
1970 Ann. Math. 91 26 If R is a ring, dim R denotes the Krull dimension of R.
2011 I. Stewart Math. of Life x. 150 The dimension of a space is the number of independent coordinates needed to specify the things that belong to it.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
dimensionv.
1. transitive. To measure or space out; to reduce to measurement. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > measure [verb (transitive)] > measure or mark off
gaugec1420
dimension1754
to mark off1803
1754 H. Walpole Lett. I. 335 I propose to break and enliven it by compartments in colours, according to the enclosed sketch, which you must adjust and dimension.
2. transitive. To mark the dimensions on (a working drawing, diagram, or sketch). Chiefly in past participle and participial adjective.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > representation > a plastic or graphic representation > graphic representation > drawing plans or diagrams > make plan or diagram of [verb (transitive)] > mark dimensions
dimension1885
1885 Marine Engineer Apr. 27/1 Twenty-five large plates of fully dimensioned drawings.
1887 D. A. Low Introd. Machine Drawing 5 Many a good drawing has its appearance spoiled through being slovenly dimensioned.
1892 D. A. Low Introd. Machine Drawing 99 Rough dimensioned sketches.
1904 Westm. Gaz. 28 July 2/1 All parts being carefully illustrated by dimensioned drawings.
1907 Installation News Oct. 1/2 Diagrams are more valuable when dimensioned.
1927 G. E. Draycott Technical Drawing xiv. 219 (heading) Inking-in and dimensioning drawings.
1966 G. K. Stegman & H. J. Stegman Archit. Drafting ix. 211/1 A modular detail requires fewer small fractional dimensions than a detail dimensioned in the regular method.
Derivatives
diˈmensioning n. the action of marking dimensions; the dimension lines, etc., on a drawing.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > representation > a plastic or graphic representation > graphic representation > drawing plans or diagrams > [noun]
projection1551
protraction1559
stereography1700
planning1730
planography1847
dimensioning1966
1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) IV. 611/1 Working types of drawings may differ in styles of dimensioning.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1413
v.1754- toil and moil
- toil house
- toil out
- tom
- tom and jerry
- tom and jerry coat
- tom and jerry days
- tom and jerry hat
- tom and jerry mixture
- tom and jerry mug
- tom and jerry shop
- tom and jerrying
- tom and jerryism
- tom and tib
- tom astoner
- tom bray's bilk
- tom brown
- tom collins
- tom come tickle me
- tom cony
- tom cox's traverse
- tom dingle
- tom doodle
- tom double
- tom drum