Nilometer
Britishnoun
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.
Lanchester concludes that “words longer mean what they once did. It is not a process intended to deceive, but, like the Nilometer, it confines knowledge to a priesthood—the priesthood of people who can speak money.”
From Forbes • Aug. 7, 2014
A great book is the Nilometer which measures intellectual life as the original Nilometer measured the life and fertility of the land of Egypt.
From Toasts and Forms of Public Address for Those Who Wish to Say the Right Thing in the Right Way by Pittenger, William
The Nilometer is in a square well 16 feet in diameter, having in the centre a graduated octagonal column with Cufic inscriptions, and is 17 cubits in height, the cubit being 21-1/3 inches.
From The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela by Benjamin of Tudela
We know that the column of the Nilometer has been frequently repaired, which fact explains the apparent discrepancy between the height of the gauge as given in Benjamin's narrative and the figures just mentioned.
From The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela by Benjamin of Tudela
If the Nilometer which measures the height of the flood indicates eight cubits, the crops will be scanty; but if it reaches fourteen cubits, there will be a plentiful harvest.
From History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) Revised Edition by Draper, John William
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.
