yard-stick

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noun

a stick a yard long, commonly marked with subdivisions, used for measuring.

any standard of measurement or judgment: Test scores are not the only yardstick of academic achievement.

Origin:
1810–20, Americanism; yard¹ + stick¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To yard-stick

Collins

World English Dictionary

yardstick (ˈjɑːdˌstɪk)

—n
1.	a measure or standard used for comparison: on what kind of yardstick is he basing his criticism?
2.	a graduated stick, one yard long, used for measurement

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Relevant Questions

What Is Yard·stick?

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Yard-stick is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

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Matching Quote

"The first man we saw on the island was an Indian named Joseph Polis, whom my relative had known from a boy, and now addressed familiarly as "Joe." He was dressing a deer-skin in his yard. The skin was spread over a slanting log, and he was scraping it with a stick held by both hands. He was stoutly built, perhaps a little above the middle height, with a broad face, and, as others said, perfect Indian features and complexion. His house was a two-story white one, with blinds, the best-looking that I noticed there, and as good as an average one on a New England village street. It was surrounded by a garden and fruit-trees, single cornstalks standing thinly amid the beans."

-Henry David Thoreau

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