metering

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of measuring an amount of something by using a meter.

   Accurate metering lets the utility bill each customer for actual usage.

   Engineers improved the metering of fuel to track consumption more precisely.

   Similarmeasurement, measuring, monitoring

   Note

   A measurement word that often works as a modifier, as in light metering and a metering device. Placed before another noun, it names either what is being measured or the equipment that measures it. It can be counted, as in several meterings of the same scene, or used as a mass noun for the activity in general.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of meter.

   The utility is metering electricity usage across the entire district.

   Metering the chemical precisely kept the reaction stable throughout the run.

   Note

   The verb form shares its spelling with the nouns, so the construction tells them apart. In "is metering usage" it is progressive, and in "metering the chemical" it is a gerund taking an object. It draws on three verb meanings: measuring, imprinting postage, and regulating a flow. Only the last reaches beyond fluids, so a singer can be metering breath and a storyteller metering anticipation.

3. 3
   nounUSuncountable

   The process of marking mail with prepaid postage by using a postage meter rather than affixing stamps.

   The mailroom relies on metering to handle its daily bulk shipments.

   Metering replaced individual stamps for most of the company's corporate accounts.

   Similarfranking

   Note

   Mailroom vocabulary, and chiefly American. It names the work of running mail through a postage meter. It pairs with the verb meter, which has its own postal meaning: to imprint a postage mark. Keep it apart from the printed mark itself. Metering in this sense is something a mailroom does, not something you can see on an envelope.

4. 4
   nounUSuncountable

   The printed mark left on a piece of mail by a postage meter, also called franking.

   The metering on the parcel showed that it had been processed that morning.

   Inspectors verify the metering before bulk mail leaves the facility.

   Similarfranking

   Note

   Here the word names the result rather than the job: the impression a postage meter leaves, which the postal service accepts in place of an adhesive stamp. Franking is the interchangeable term. Unlike the postal process, it is readily counted, with one metering on each envelope and meterings in the plural. It shares the same chiefly American use.

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