scale² /skāl/

1. A thin plate on a fish, reptile, etc
2. A readily detached flake
3. A lamina
4. An overlapping plate in armour
5. A small, flat, detachable piece of cuticle
6. A reduced leaf or leaf-base, often membranous, or hard and woody
7. Any of the small flat structures covering a butterfly's or moth's wing
8. The waxy shield secreted by a scale insect
9. An encrustation, esp that left inside a kettle, etc by hard water
10. A deposit of tartar on the teeth
11. A film, as on iron being heated for forging
12. A side piece of a razor or clasp-knife handle

1. To clear of scale or scales
2. To peel off in thin layers

1. To come off in thin layers or flakes
2. To form scales
3. To become encrusted with scale

scaled adjective

1. Having scales
2. Cleared of scales

scaleˈless adjective

scaleˈlike adjective

scalˈer noun

1. A person who scales fish, boilers, etc
2. An instrument for scaling, as for removing tartar from the teeth

scalˈiness noun

scalˈing noun

1. Formation, peeling off, shedding, removal, or arrangement, of scales or scale
2. A scaled-off piece

scalˈy adjective

1. Covered with scales
2. Like scales
3. Shabby
4. Formed of scales
5. Inclined to scale

scale armour noun

Armour of overlapping scales

scale board noun

A very thin slip of wood

scale fern noun

A fern (Ceterach officinarum) whose back is densely covered with rusty-coloured scales

scale fish noun

1. A dry-cured fish, such as haddock, hake, pollack
2. A fish with scales

scale insect noun

Any insect of the homopterous family Coccidae, in which the sedentary female fixes on a plant and secretes a waxy shield

scale leaf noun

A scale that is homologically a leaf

scale moss noun

A liverwort with small leaflike structures, as Jungermannia

scaleˈwork noun

Imbricated ornament

• cross-lighted
• crosslights
• cross-link
• cross-linked
• cross-linking
• cross-links
• crossly
• cross-magnetic
• cross-marketing
• cross-match
• cross-matched
• cross-matches
• cross-matching
• crossness
• crossnesses
• cross one's fingers
• cross one's heart
• cross one's heart and hope to die
• crossopterygian
• Crossopterygii
• cross-or-pile
• crossover
• crossover network
• crossover networks
• crossovers