scaler

American  

[skey-ler] / ˈskeɪ lər /

noun

1. a person or thing that scales.

2. Also called scaling circuit.  Also called counter.  Electronics. an electronic circuit devised to give a single pulse as output after a certain number of input pulses.

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scaler British  

/ ˈskeɪlə /

noun

1. a person or thing that scales

2. Also called: counter.   scaling circuit.  an electronic device or circuit that aggregates electric pulses and gives a single output pulse for a predetermined number of input pulses

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Etymology

Origin of scaler

First recorded in 1605–15; scale ¹, scale ³ + -er ¹

Example Sentences

A dental scaler, that hook-ended metal tool a dentist uses to chip away plaque, makes the exact same sound against a stegosaurus femur that it does on a human tooth.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2022

As I lay in the dentist’s chair while the hygienist scraped each tooth with a steel scaler, I wept, silently and irrepressibly, under a pair of oversized goggles.

From New York Times • Apr. 1, 2022

Barred access to my nerves by anesthetics, the scrape of the scaler found acoustic paths up the sides of my head.

From Washington Post • Oct. 27, 2021

At the defense, five professors prodded her with questions in the manner of a dental scaler scraping away plaque—an excavation that Chuang seemed to enjoy in proportion.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 31, 2018

He could do nothing without the report; and it was too far out to send for another scaler, even if Daly would have given him one.

From Blazed Trail Stories and Stories of the Wild Life by White, Stewart Edward