sizes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of size.

   The store stocks shirts in all standard sizes.

   Engineers compared the sizes of the two components.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of size. A shop's sizes are its fixed sets of dimensions for clothing and other goods, and in graph theory the sizes of two graphs are the numbers of their edges. When the meaning is simply how big something is, the singular often serves just as well: things of every size, beside things of all sizes.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of size.

   The tailor sizes every customer before cutting the fabric.

   This program sizes the image to fit the screen.

   Note

   Behind the -s stands a verb with several trades. A tailor or a program sizes something to fit, a mill sizes ore by sifting fine from coarse, and a laboratory sizes proteins by molecular weight. Nearly every use takes a direct object. Only the sense of growing larger lets the verb stand alone, with nothing after it.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2