from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Meter \Me"ter\, n. [From {Mete} to measure.]
1. One who, or that which, metes or measures. See
{Coal-meter}.
[1913 Webster]
2. An instrument for measuring, and usually for recording
automatically, the quantity measured.
[1913 Webster]
{Dry meter}, a gas meter having measuring chambers, with
flexible walls, which expand and contract like bellows and
measure the gas by filling and emptying.
{Wet meter}, a gas meter in which the revolution of a
chambered drum in water measures the gas passing through
it.
[1913 Webster]