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

An instant later, across the open space where the scaler had stood, with rifle a-trail, the Indian leaped in pursuit.

From The Blazed Trail by White, Stewart Edward