- 1to make a judgement about something, especially people’s feelings or attitudes gauge something They interviewed employees to gauge their reaction to the changes. He tried to gauge her mood. gauge whether, how, etc… It was difficult to gauge whether she was angry or not.
- 2gauge something to measure something accurately using a special instrument precision instruments that can gauge the diameter to a fraction of a millimetre
- 3gauge something | gauge how, what, etc… to calculate something approximately We were able to gauge the strength of the wind from the movement of the trees. It is impossible to gauge the extent of the damage. Word Origin Middle English (denoting a standard measure): from Old French gauge (noun), gauger (verb), variant of Old Northern French jauge (noun), jauger (verb), of unknown origin.Extra examples It is difficult to gauge accurately how much fuel is needed It’s always difficult to gauge how many people attend events like these. Some of this can be gauged from existing data. You should be able to gauge roughly how long a task will take.
BrE BrE//ɡeɪdʒ//; NAmE NAmE//ɡeɪdʒ//Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they gauge
BrE BrE//ɡeɪdʒ//; NAmE NAmE//ɡeɪdʒ//he / she / it gauges
BrE BrE//ˈɡeɪdʒɪz//; NAmE NAmE//ˈɡeɪdʒɪz//past simple gauged
BrE BrE//ɡeɪdʒd//; NAmE NAmE//ɡeɪdʒd//past participle gauged
BrE BrE//ɡeɪdʒd//; NAmE NAmE//ɡeɪdʒd//-ing form gauging
BrE BrE//ˈɡeɪdʒɪŋ//; NAmE NAmE//ˈɡeɪdʒɪŋ//