[f. AVERAGE sb.2 in sense 5; = ‘calculate or estimate by average’; cf. to proportion, square, cube, double, etc.]
1. trans. To estimate, by dividing the aggregate of a series by the number of its units, (at so much); to take the average of; to form an opinion as to the prevailing standard of.
1831. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLIV. 382. His Sunday congregation was averaged at about six hundred persons.
1851. H. Spencer, Soc. Stat., xxxii. § 6. By averaging the characters of those whom he personally knows, he can form a tolerably correct opinion of those whom he does not know.
1852. Sir W. Hamilton, Disc., 444, note. Averaging the Battel dues paid by each at thirty shillings, there results [etc.].
1881. ‘M. Twain,’ Pr. & Paup., xxii. 257. The blacksmith averaged the stalwart soldier with a glance, then went muttering away.
2. ellipt. for: To average itself at, or be averaged at; to amount to, or be, on an average.
1821. Byron, Juan, III. xv. They all had cuffs and collars And averaged each from ten to a hundred dollars.
1822. W. Spence, Pol. Econ., Pref. 33. Fixing the annual sum to be paid by each parish at what it has averaged for the past five or ten years.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ella of Gar., i. 2. These visits averaged about one in the life-time of each laird.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 21. Wheat … averaged in the middle of the fourteenth century tenpence the bushel.
1859. Masson, Milton, I. 452. The sale of the book … averaged a thousand copies a year.
3. ellipt. for: To do, gain, take (or almost any verb of which the meaning may be inferred from the context) on an average; to accomplish (in any kind of action) an average amount of (so much).
1822. De Quincey, Conf. (1862), 200. So much this surgeon averaged upon each day for about twenty years.
1881. Daily News, 10 Dec., 3/1. The hard-worked officers of the Club and Hall, who have been averaging eighteen hours’ work per diem.
