Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun plural An instrument, usually resembling a pair of dividers or compasses with curved legs, for measuring the diameter or thickness of bodies, as of work shaped in a lathe or planer, timber, masts, shot, etc.; or the bore of firearms, tubes, etc.; -- called also
caliper compasses , orcaliber compasses . - noun plural a draughtsman's or mechanic's square, having a graduated bar and adjustable jaw or jaws.
- noun plural See
Vernier .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A device used to
measure thickness between two surfaces, especially for small orprecise measurements.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Not 'calipers', those little measuring, pinchy-things.
HH Com 51 Miss Snark 2006
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What kind of calipers do you use to measure human dignity, anyhow?
AMERICAN.COM -- A Magazine of Ideas, Online Kenneth P. Green 2010
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I had a tool I picked up in France, a kind of calipers, for removing the most stubbornly stuck dry Champagne corks.
Thestar.com - Home Page Gord Stimmell 2010
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Have basic understanding of measuring devices such as calipers, micrometers, scales or have the ability to learn them.
unknown title 2009
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Let's say you bought this car, a Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon, with a 6.2-liter, 556-horsepower Corvette V8, six-speed manual transmission, magnetorheological dampers I'll get to that, Michelin SP2 gumballs, 15-inch front Brembo brakes with six-pot calipers, and microsuede wrapping on the steering wheel and shifter.
Cadillac's Insane, Unnecessary, Awesome Wagon Dan Neil 2011
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Meyers is a looser writer than Ephron, whose scripts advance in such nifty parallelisms, one imagines her plotting them with a pair of calipers.
Double-X Films 2009
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Also on board, larger chain and sprockets, for increased durability, and new calipers and rotors for better stopping power.
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I was cruising with a pair of calipers and tagging the trees and keeping a half-assed inventory.
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Returning outside, the red brake calipers behind the gray-painted alloys on our copper-colored test car just rocked.
For the Cheerleader in Everyone Dan Neil 2011
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The thing's got 15.4-inch front Brembo brakes with radial-mounted six-pot monoblock calipers.
Nissan GT-R: A 'Halo Car' With Devil's Horns Dan Neil 2011
nuxiy commented on the word calipers
Also in physical anthropology:
"The standard instruments for collecting anthropological measurements."
- SNPA
Sliding calipers
Spreading calipers
Coordinate calipers
March 21, 2009
sionnach commented on the word calipers
It's interesting that, in multivariate analysis, (an important branch of statistics that deals with the treatment of data consisting of multiple, possibly correlated, measurements, usually considered as response variables) one of the canonical datasets used to illustrate the various methods of analysis is a collection of anthropometric cranial measurements. Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, the great grumpy old grandfather of modern statistics, had a field day with them, as did many of his disciples.
This was before the vile, contemptible "psychometricians" moved in and sullied the entire field with their ridiculous fripperies such as "factor analysis", "correspondence analysis" (a uniquely French perversion) and other forms of black magic too infandous to be named here.
March 21, 2009
bilby commented on the word calipers
Anthropometric cranial measurements ... will this tell me why the cap I wore in the cricket grand final last year no longer fits, or should I shower, shave and shalute the god of bald shtatues?
March 21, 2009