CALIBRATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does calibrate mean? 

• CALIBRATE (verb)
  The verb CALIBRATE has 3 senses:

1. make fine adjustments or divide into marked intervals for optimal measuring

2. mark (the scale of a measuring instrument) so that it can be read in the desired units

3. measure the caliber of

  Familiarity information: CALIBRATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CALIBRATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they calibrate    ... he / she / it calibrates   
Past simple: calibrated   
Past participle: calibrated   
-ing form: calibrating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make fine adjustments or divide into marked intervals for optimal measuring

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

calibrate; fine-tune; graduate

Context example:

graduate a cylinder

Hypernyms (to "calibrate" is one way to...):

adjust; correct; set (alter or regulate so as to achieve accuracy or conform to a standard)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

calibration (the act of checking or adjusting (by comparison with a standard) the accuracy of a measuring instrument)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mark (the scale of a measuring instrument) so that it can be read in the desired units

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

he calibrated the thermometer for the Celsius scale

Hypernyms (to "calibrate" is one way to...):

label; mark; tag (attach a tag or label to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

calibration (the act of checking or adjusting (by comparison with a standard) the accuracy of a measuring instrument)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Measure the caliber of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

calibrate a gun

Hypernyms (to "calibrate" is one way to...):

measure; measure out; mensurate (determine the measurements of something or somebody, take measurements of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

caliber (diameter of a tube or gun barrel)

 Context examples 

A calibrated dental instrument used to measure periodontal pocket depth and/or clinical attachment level at various locations around the teeth.

(Periodontal Probe, NCI Thesaurus)

IMERG data are calibrated using Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) data received by the GPM core observatory satellite.

(France's Flooding Rains Examined by NASA’s IMERG, NASA)

Procedure used to calibrate measurements or measurement devices.

(Calibration, NCI Thesaurus/DICOM)

The atlas takes advantage of low-light imaging now available from the NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, calibrated by thousands of ground observations.

(Milky Way now hidden from a third of humanity, NOAA)

A device that cannot calibrate (establish the relationship between a measuring device and the units of measure) to ensure accurate readings.

(Device Failure to Calibrate Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)

A computer program based on a two-state phylogenetic hidden Markov model (phylo-HMM) that works by fitting a phylo-HMM to the data by maximum likelihood, subject to constraints designed to calibrate the model across species groups, and then predicting conserved elements based on this model.

(phastCon, NCI Thesaurus)

A bottle that has a device specifically intended for the application of a liquid in a drop by drop manner, or a device intended for the delivery of an exact dose (e.g., calibrated dropper for oral medications).

(Dropper Bottle, NCI Thesaurus)

Lopez Garcia said, After analyzing many more samples than in previous works, with adequate controls so as not to contaminate them and a well-calibrated methodology, we have verified that there’s no microbial life in these salty, hot and hyperacid pools or in the adjacent magnesium-rich brine lakes.

(Place discovered on earth with no microbial life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)