Word.ws English Dictionary

gauge

UK/ˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈɡæɪd͡ʒ/

gauge noun: a measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard. Also the ellipsis of track gauge.

Noun

gauge (countable and uncountable, plural gauges)

  1. A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
    • the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt1780, Edmund Burke, speech at The Guildhall, in Bristol
    • The record of philosophy vis-à-vis silence is generally dismal, as good a gauge as any to its overall failure.2008 Spring/Summer, John Zerzan, “Silence”, in Green Anarchy, number 25
  2. An act of measuring.
  3. An estimate.
  4. Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the level, state, dimensions or forms of things
  5. A thickness of sheet metal or wire designated by any of several numbering schemes, with lower numbers indicating larger size.
  6. A semi-norm; a function that assigns a non-negative size to all vectors in a vector space.
  7. The number of stitches per inch, centimetre, or other unit of distance.
  8. Relative positions of two or more vessels with reference to the wind.
    • A vessel has the weather gauge of another when on the windward side of it, and the lee gauge when on the lee side of it.
  9. The depth to which a vessel sinks in the water.
  10. (plastering) The quantity of plaster of Paris used with common plaster to make it set more quickly.
  11. That part of a shingle, slate, or tile, which is exposed to the weather, when laid; also, one course of such shingles, slates, or tiles.
  12. A unit of measurement which describes how many spheres of bore diameter of a shotgun can be had from one pound of lead; 12 gauge is roughly equivalent to .75 caliber.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (US, broadly, slang) A shotgun (synecdoche for 12 gauge shotgun, the most common chambering for combat and hunting shotguns).
    • I'm talking about cocking a gauge in between your eyes.1992, “A Nigga Witta Gun”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre, Death Row Records
    • I'm tryin to find ways to cope / But I ain't fuckin' round with the gauge or a rope1996, “Illusions”, in Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom, performed by Cypress Hill
  2. A tunnel-like ear piercing consisting of a hollow ring embedded in the lobe.
    • Jenni didn't really look as though she fit in with the rest of the girls here, she had a nose piercing and angel bites, her long curly dark brown hair with red highlights was pulled back exposing gauges and many other ear piercings and a tattoo […]2013, Destiny Patterson, Samantha Beckworth, Jennifer Proctor, Arose, page 150
    Synonyms:
    ear gauge
  3. (slang, uncountable) Cannabis.
    • […] smoking gauge was a new phenomenon to Himes: “When I looked up after turning the corner, all the grimy facades seemed to be a blaze of bright colors, gold, scarlet, blue, green, like an array of peacocks. […]1971, Black Creation, volumes 3-6, page 53
    • When we settled, he said, “You've been smoking gauge, haven't you?”2000, Cynthia Palmer, Michael Horowitz, Sisters of the Extreme

Verb

gauge (third-person singular simple present gauges, present participle gauging, simple past and past participle gauged)

  1. (transitive) To measure or determine with a gauge; to measure the capacity of.
  2. (transitive) To estimate.
  3. (transitive) To appraise the character or ability of; to judge of.
    • You shall not gauge me / By what we do to-night.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (transitive, textile) To draw into equidistant gathers by running a thread through it.
  5. (transitive) To mix (a quantity of ordinary plaster) with a quantity of plaster of Paris.
  6. (transitive) To chip, hew or polish (stones, bricks, etc) to a standard size and/or shape.

Proper noun capitalized: Gauge

Gauge

  1. A male given name.

Also used as

gauge is also the ellipsis of track gauge.

gauge is also the ellipsis of loading gauge.

gauge meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

gauge in Hindi

a measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
मानदंड māndaṇḍ

gauge in Tamil

கேஜ்

gauge in Marathi

गेज

gauge in Urdu

گیج
More languagesFewer languages
gauge in Bengali
গেজ
gauge in Telugu
గేజ్
gauge in Malayalam
ഗേജ്
gauge in Kannada
ಗೇಜ್
gauge in Punjabi
ਗੇਜ, ਗੇਜ਼
gauge in Gujarati
ગેજ
gauge in Odia
ଗେଜ, ଗେଜ୍
gauge in Nepali
गेज
gauge in Tagalog
pansukod
gauge in Indonesian
geji

Examples of gauge in a sentence

  • Seaman, sea gauge, sea monster, sea horse, sea level, seaworthy, seaport, seaboard, etc.
  • The car's instrumentation included fuel, temperature, voltimeter and oil pressure gauges, along with a speedometer and tachometer.
  • I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.

All 40 example sentences with gauge

Synonyms of gauge

Forms of gauge

Noun
pluralgauges
alternative USgage
Verb
third-person singular presentgauges
present participlegauging
past participlegauged
pastgauged

Plural of gauge: gauges

Origin of gauge

From Middle English gauge, gaugen, from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French gauger (compare Modern French jauger from Old French jaugier), from gauge (“gauging rod”), from Frankish *galgā (“measuring rod, pole”), from Proto-Germanic *galgô (“pole, stake, cross”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“perch, long switch”). Cognate with Old High German galgo, Old Frisian galga, Old English ġealga (“cross-beam, gallows”), Old Norse galgi (“cross-beam, gallows”), Old Norse gelgja (“pole, perch”). Doublet of gallows.

Words formed from gauge

Phrases with gauge

17 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with gauge

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gauge

What does gauge mean?
Gauge means a measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard.
What is gauge in Hindi?
Gauge in Hindi is मानदंड (māndaṇḍ). See Gauge meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is gauge?
Gauge can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gauge?
Gauge is pronounced /ˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the plural of gauge?
The plural of gauge is gauges.

Words near gauge in the dictionary

  1. gaufrette
  2. gaufrettes
  3. gaugable
  4. Gaugain
  5. Gaugamela
  6. gauge
  7. gauge block
  8. gauge blocks
  9. gauge boson
  10. gauge bosons
  11. gauge cock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gauge (page history and authors); Gauge (page history and authors); gauge (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gauge (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gauge.ogg.

Cite this entry: “gauge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gauge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.