CALIBER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Caliber

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/kˈæləbər/ Listen

noun

Calibre, Caliber n.

(Gunnery) The diameter of the bore, as a cannon or other firearm, or of any tube; or the weight or size of the projectile which a firearm will carry; as, an 8 inch gun, a 12-pounder, a 44 caliber. "The caliber of empty tubes." "A battery composed of three guns of small caliber." Note: The caliber of firearms is expressed in various ways. Cannon are often designated by the weight of a solid spherical shot that will fit the bore; as, a 12-pounder; pieces of ordnance that project shell or hollow shot are designated by the diameter of their bore; as, a 12 inch mortar or a 14 inch shell gun; small arms are designated by hundredths of an inch expressed decimally; as, a rifle of.44 inch caliber.

The diameter of round or cylindrical body, as of a bullet or column.

Fig.: Capacity or compass of mind.

Caliber compasses. See Calipers.

Caliber rule, a gunner's calipers, an instrument having two scales arranged to determine a ball's weight from its diameter, and conversely.

A ship's caliber, the weight of her armament.

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Etymology of 'Caliber'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Caliber" Quotes from Famous Books

... this article. She is a weighty actress corporeally, if not artistically, and poor Mercy Merrick fared rather badly. This Wilkie Collins heroine has been neglected of late, in favor of such base subterfuges as figures of the Nancy Stair caliber, but certain signs point to revivals of "The New Magdalen," which as an emotional story has seldom been surpassed. Compared with the pitiful puppet "romances" of to-day, this genuine piece of throbbing fiction seems to ...

— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905 • Various

... building each year of at least one first-class battle ship equal in size and speed to any that any nation is at the same time building; the armament presumably to consist of as large a number as possible of very heavy guns of one caliber, together with smaller guns to repel torpedo attack; while there should be heavy armor, turbine engines, and in short, every modern device. Of course, from time to time, cruisers, colliers, torpedo-boat destroyers or torpedo boats, Will have to be built also. All this, be it remembered, would ...

— State of the Union Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... tarantula nor scorpion to be feared in the Blue Ridge; the harmless lizard is called scorpion by the mountaineer. Nor are there large poisonous reptiles. There are snakes of lesser caliber, but only rattlers and copperheads among them are venomous. The highlander is not bedeviled by biting ants but there are fleas and flies in abundance though no mosquitoes, thanks to the absence of stagnant pools and lakes. There ...

— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas

... whined again, and sprang aside just as the bear, maddened with the pain of a .450-caliber rifle bullet in his stomach, and seeking a sacrifice, hurled out of the dark and up over the tree-trunk, striking, with appalling nail-strokes, right and left; and the quickness of those strokes was only a less astonishment than the agility of the wolves getting out of the way of them. But—but ...

— The Way of the Wild • F. St. Mars

... individual ability possessed by its maker, but he does inherit a "money power" wholly independent of his own qualifications or deserts. By virtue of that power alone he is in a position in some measure to exploit his fellow-countrymen. Even though a man of very inferior intellectual and moral caliber, he is able vastly to increase his fortune through the information and opportunity which that fortune bestows upon him, and without making any individual contribution to the economic organization of the country. His power brings with it no personal dignity or efficiency; and for ...

— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly

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