MEASURE, in a legal and commercial sense, denotes a certain quantity or proportion of any thing bought, sold, valued, or the like. Measures are then various, according to the various kinds and dimensions of the things measured. Hence arise lineal or longitudinal measures, for lines or lengths; square measures, for areas or superficies; and solid or cubic measures, for bodies and their capacities. All which again are very different in different countries, and in different ages, and even many of them for different commodities. Whence arise other divisions of ancient and modern measures, domestic and foreign ones, dry measures, liquid measures, &c. For the different kinds of measures, see ARITHMETIC, GEOMETRY, and the particular names of measures, as they occur in the alphabetical order.