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.
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
“Perhaps, although the lack of clarity about the metes and bounds of the restricted area and the Vice President’s movements on January 6th undermine this argument.”
From Seattle Times • Mar. 21, 2022
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
Surveyors were mapping out metes and bounds to tame the jumbled countryside with the gridiron pattern we know today.
From New York Times • Dec. 1, 2010
Truth to him was not a field with metes and bounds.
From Humanly Speaking by Crothers, Samuel McChord
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.
