BAROMETER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does barometer mean? 

• BAROMETER (noun)
  The noun BAROMETER has 1 sense:

1. an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure

  Familiarity information: BAROMETER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BAROMETER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An instrument that measures atmospheric pressure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("barometer" is a kind of...):

measuring device; measuring instrument; measuring system (instrument that shows the extent or amount or quantity or degree of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "barometer"):

aneroid; aneroid barometer (a barometer that measures pressure without using fluids)

barograph (a recording barometer; automatically records on paper the variations in atmospheric pressure)

mercury barometer (barometer that shows pressure by the height of a column of mercury)

weatherglass (a simple barometer for indicating changes in atmospheric pressure)

Derivation:

barometric; barometrical (relating to atmospheric pressure or indicated by a barometer)

 Context examples 

A unit equal to the volume in milliliters per one millimeter rise of mercury in a barometer at the Earth's surface.

(Milliliters Per Millimeter of Mercury, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of pressure equal to 0.001316 atmosphere and equal to the pressure indicated by one millimeter rise of mercury in a barometer at the Earth's surface.

(Millimeter of Mercury, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

She applied to Mr. Allen for confirmation of her hopes, but Mr. Allen, not having his own skies and barometer about him, declined giving any absolute promise of sunshine.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

You remember, I told you last night the barometer was falling.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Now, upon his assigning some duty to his fellow-Professor (it was only the carrying of an aneroid barometer), the matter suddenly came to a head.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The whole place was turned upside down, drawers burst open, and presses ransacked, with the result that an odd volume of Pope’s ‘Homer,’ two plated candlesticks, an ivory letter-weight, a small oak barometer, and a ball of twine are all that have vanished.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The barometer was down, and the sky to the east did not please him.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)