size (1), sise

[A shortened form of a ize or a ise, the usual word for an allowance or settled portion of bread, ., doled out for a particular price or given to a dependent. The a ize of bread or fuel was the ordinance for the sale of bread or fuel, laying down price, length, weight, thickne ; . Hence size came to mean dimension, magnitude, ., generally, as at present. ( Skeat.)] *1. A settled allowance or quantity. "To scant my sizes ."-Shakesp.: Lear, ii. 4. *2. A farthing's worth of bread or drink, which scholars at Cambridge had at the buttery. ( Blount .) *3. ( Pl .): A ize, a izes. ( Beaum . & Fletcher.) 4. Extent of volume or surface; dimensions, whether great or small; comparative magnitude; bulk. ( Shakesp .: Troil . and Cre ., iv. 5.) 5. A conventional relative measurement of dimension, applied to various articles, as gloves, boots, shoes, hats, . "In clamors of all sizes ." *6. Measure, in a figurative sense; amount, form. Shakesp.: Complaint of a Lover , 21. *7. Condition as to standing, position in society, rank, character, or the like. "They do not consider the difference between elaborate discourses, delivered to princes or parliaments, and a plain sermon, for the middling or lower size of people." -Swift. 8. A gauge for measuring; spec if., an instrument for measuring pearls. A number of perforated gauges are fastened together by a rivet at one end. Size is a general term, including all manner of dimension or measurement; magnitude is employed in science or in an abstract sense to denote some specific measurement; greatne is applied in the same sense to objects in general. Size is indefinite; magnitude and greatne always suppose something great, and bulk denotes a considerable degree of greatne . (Crabb.)