Dictionary entry

Scale (4)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Scale (?), v. t. 1. To strip or clear of scale or scales; as, to scale a fish; to scale the inside of a boiler.

2. To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface. “If all the mountains were scaled, and the earth made even.” T. Burnet.

3. To scatter; to spread.

4. (Gun.) To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder. Totten.