scaled

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of scale.

   The climbers scaled the sheer rock face before noon.

   The recipe was scaled up to feed two hundred guests.

   Note

   One regular form carries several very different verbs: climbers scaled a cliff, cooks scaled a recipe up or a fish clean, and drafters sometimes scaled a drawing, a habit usually discouraged because measurements taken that way can mislead. Most of these uses need a direct object. The throughput sense stands alone, as in the system scaled well. The fish-cleaning verb also gives the adjective for de-scaled fish.

2. 2
   adjective

   Covered with scales or scale-like structures over the surface of the body.

   The pangolin is the only mammal with a fully scaled exterior.

   Reptile keepers regularly inspect the scaled skin of their animals for parasites.

   Similarscaly, armored

   Oppositescaleless

   Note

   A zoologist's descriptive term for animals whose body surface is armored with scales or scale-like plates, such as fish, reptiles and the pangolin. It does not compare: a creature is scaled or it is not, never more scaled. The same spelling also names the opposite, scale-free condition, so scaled herring at the fish counter has lost its scales. Only context tells the two apart.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having had the scales removed, or naturally lacking scales altogether.

   The chef bought a tray of scaled and filleted salmon for the evening service.

   Properly scaled mackerel cooks more evenly without the rough outer layer.

   Oppositeunscaled

   Note

   This is the kitchen's adjective, made from the verb for stripping off scales. Scaled herring has already been through that step. The word often pairs with other preparation terms, as in scaled and gutted or scaled and filleted. It works before the noun or after be (the fish was scaled). It is easily mistaken for the zoologist's 'covered with scales'.

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