metes and bounds
Americanplural noun
Etymology
Origin of metes and bounds
1275–1325; late Middle English; translation of Anglo-French metes et boundes. See mete 2, bound 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But country stations still retain a significant gatekeeping power, elevating favored performers and mediating the genre’s metes and bounds for audiences and the industry at large.
From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2024
Portuguese Bend residents generally favor a system more in tune with metes and bounds, a mapping method that uses physical landmarks such as trees, walls and roads to measure parcels.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2023
Statisticians cannot say more than they know and the data constrain the conclusion to be within the metes and bounds of the data.
From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017
That settled it: Like the trees used as markers by settlers to denote the metes and bounds of changing landscapes, the oak would be my witness tree.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 13, 2017
But in order to show that it is central, he must limit the universe and give its circumference, metes and bounds.
From The Universe a Vast Electric Organism by Warder, George Woodward
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
