[a. OFr. amesurement, occ. later spelling admesurement: see ADMEASURE and -MENT.]
1. The process of admeasuring; applying a measure in order to ascertain or compare dimensions.
1598. Bacon, Hist. Alienations, Wks. 1730, III. 558 (J.). In some counties they are not much acquainted with admeasurement by acre.
1767. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Prov. Mass. Bay, iii. 326. When the terror is so great, no dependance can be placed upon the admeasurement of time in any person’s mind.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets (1863), 134. Too low for admeasurement with Spenser.
2. Absolute or comparative dimensions; size, dimensions, proportions.
1790. Burke, Fr. Revol., Wks. V. 237. The middle term for the rest of France is about nine hundred inhabitants to the same admeasurement.
1853. Maurice, Proph. & Kings, xxvii. 465. Accurate admeasurements in feet and cubits seem as if they must relate to a visible, not to an invisible fabric.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, lxxii. 380. His steam-yacht Pan, of considerable admeasurement.
3. The ascertainment and apportionment of just shares in anything, as in an inheritance or a common.
1598. Kitchen, Courts Leet (1675), 187. Admeasurement lies between commoners.
1650–4. Ussher, Annals, VI. (1658), 374. A further admeasurement of corn among his army.
1691. Blount, Law Dict., Admeasurement is a Writ which lies, for bringing those to Reason, or a Mediocrity, that usurp more than their share.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 238. By writ of admeasurement of pasture.
