size

SIZE, noun [either contracted from assize, or from the Latin scissus. I take it to be from the former, and from the sense of setting, as we apply the word to the assize of bread.] 1. Bulk; bigness; magnitude; extent of superficies. size particularly expresses thickness; as the size of a tree or of a mast; the size of a ship or of a rock. A man may be tall, with little size of body. 2. A settled quantity of allowance. [contracted from assize.] 3. Figurative bulk; condition as to rank and character; as men of less size and quality. [Not much used.] SIZE, verb transitive 1. To adjust or arrange according to size or bulk. 2. To settle; to fix the standard of; as, to size weights and measures. [Now little used.] 3. To cover with size; to prepare with size 4. To swell; to increase the bulk or. 5. Among Cornish miners, to separate the finer firm the coarser parts of a metal by sifting them through a wire sieve.