A degree or grade of excellence or worth

Usage examples of calibre.

They were all well made, forged in Agra by French-trained gunsmiths, but some were the wrong calibre and a few were so overdecorated with writhing gods and goddesses that no self-respecting gunner could abide them.

This cut the ground from under the feet of his detractors, for in a town of the calibre of Asuncion the people looked on a service in a church as a welcome means of getting through the day, and had he celebrated a dozen masses they would but have been more delighted with their new Bishop.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent in making acquaintance with the Baltimorean blockade-runner, my room-mate, and in exchanging dreary prison civilities with the cells either side, through little tunnels pierced in the wall by former prisoners, which allowed passage to anything of a calibre not exceeding that of a rolled newspaper.

Bill Brakey slipped a heavy calibre gun from its shoulder holster, nestled it in his right hand.

In single-deck vessels carrying only sixteen guns, or less, all of the same calibre and class, or having like charges, one scuttle at the magazine will suffice.

If, however, there are any guns of the same calibre on spar-decks requiring lighter charges, the lower half of the box shall be painted white.

The service charges for the different calibres and classes of naval smooth-bore guns now used in the Navy are as follows, and the cartridges are to be filled accordingly, viz.

The shells of Schenkl and Hotchkiss have also been used, however, in the smaller calibres.

The reports showing the superiority of this gun and projectile, both as regards range, accuracy, and execution, for field service over that of all others at the battle of Fort Donelson, leads me to request that there be furnished to the State of Illinois in the shortest time practicable seven batteries of 12-pounder calibre James rifled guns, with carriages, harness, implements, etc.

But Freeth showed me, so that whenever I saw one of that calibre rolling down on me, I slid off the rear end of the board and dropped down beneath the surface, my arms over my head and holding the board.

She was now armed with eight brass guns, of a calibre of six pounds each, four howitzers aft, and two cohorns on the taffrail.

Maurie Plant concedes this danger but emphasises that an athlete of Perec's calibre had to be respected.

The FFF hastens to assure the people of the Netherlands that those nuclear devices are not of the calibre of hydrogen or atomic weapons.

As a conversation stopper it was of Oscar-earning calibre, and in the breath-held aghast silence the front doorbell rang.

Since the beaters drove tractors and other light farm machinery fitted with heavy snake-bars, the crews equipped with noisemakers, flails and, at the last resort, heavy calibre hand-guns, anything that could persuade a snake to return to the stream heading south towards their natural habitat.