calibre

• caliber (US)

From French calibre (“bore of a gun, size, capacity (literally, and figuratively), also weight”), from Italian calibro.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkæl.ɪb.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

calibre (countable and uncountable, plural calibres) (British spelling, Australia, Canada, New Zealand)

1. Diameter of the bore of a firearm, typically measured between opposite lands.
2. The diameter of round or cylindrical body, as of a bullet, a projectile, or a column.
3. A nominal name for a cartridge type, which may not exactly indicate its true size and may include other measurements such as cartridge length or black powder capacity. Eg 7.62×39 or 38.40.
4. Unit of measure used to express the length of the bore of a weapon. The number of calibres is determined by dividing the length of the bore of the weapon, from the breech face of the tube to the muzzle, by the diameter of its bore. A gun tube the bore of which is 40 feet (480 inches) long and 12 inches in diameter is said to be 40 calibers long.
5. (figuratively) Relative size, importance, magnitude.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     A snort of about the calibre of an explosion in an ammunition dump escaped my late father's sister.

6. (figuratively) Capacity or compass of mind.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burke to this entry?)

7. (dated) Degree of importance or station in society.

• calibrate
• calibration
• calipers

• calibre in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• calibre in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Clarendon Press, 1989.

• caliber

From Arabic قَالِب‎ (qālib).

• IPA^(key): /ka.libʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

calibre m (plural calibres)

1. calibre

   gros calibre ― large calibre, large bore; high calibre

calibre

1. first-person singular present indicative of calibrer
2. third-person singular present indicative of calibrer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of calibrer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of calibrer
5. second-person singular imperative of calibrer

• “calibre” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• ciblera

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈʎibɾi/

calibre m (plural calibres)

1. caliber / calibre (dimension)
2. gauge (mathematics, physics)

• IPA^(key): /kaˈlibɾe/, [kaˈliβɾe]

From French calibre.

calibre m (plural calibres)

1. calibre
2. calipers

• calibrar

See the etymology of the main entry.

calibre

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of calibrar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of calibrar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of calibrar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of calibrar.

• “calibre” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.