Average

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Average \Av"er*age\, n. [OF. average, LL. averagium, prob. fr.
     OF. aver, F. avoir, property, horses, cattle, etc.; prop.
     infin., to have, from L. habere to have. Cf. F. av['e]rage
     small cattle, and avarie (perh. of different origin) damage
     to ship or cargo, port dues. The first meaning was perhaps
     the service of carting a feudal lord's wheat, then charge for


     carriage, the contribution towards loss of things carried, in
     proportion to the amount of each person's property. Cf.
     {Aver}, n., {Avercorn}, {Averpenny}.]
     1. (OLd Eng. Law) That service which a tenant owed his lord,
        to be done by the work beasts of the tenant, as the
        carriage of wheat, turf, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. [Cf. F. avarie damage to ship or cargo.] (Com.)
        (a) A tariff or duty on goods, etc. [Obs.]
        (b) Any charge in addition to the regular charge for
            freight of goods shipped.
        (c) A contribution to a loss or charge which has been
            imposed upon one of several for the general benefit;
            damage done by sea perils.
        (d) The equitable and proportionate distribution of loss
            or expense among all interested.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     {General average}, a contribution made, by all parties
        concerned in a sea adventure, toward a loss occasioned by
        the voluntary sacrifice of the property of some of the
        parties in interest for the benefit of all. It is called
        general average, because it falls upon the gross amount of
        ship, cargo, and freight at risk and saved by the
        sacrifice. --Kent.
  
     {Particular average} signifies the damage or partial loss
        happening to the ship, or cargo, or freight, in
        consequence of some fortuitous or unavoidable accident;
        and it is borne by the individual owners of the articles
        damaged, or by their insurers.
  
     {Petty averages} are sundry small charges, which occur
        regularly, and are necessarily defrayed by the master in
        the usual course of a voyage; such as port charges, common
        pilotage, and the like, which formerly were, and in some
        cases still are, borne partly by the ship and partly by
        the cargo. In the clause commonly found in bills of
        lading, "primage and average accustomed," average means a
        kind of composition established by usage for such charges,
        which were formerly assessed by way of average. --Arnould.
        --Abbott. --Phillips.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A mean proportion, medial sum or quantity, made out of
        unequal sums or quantities; an arithmetical mean. Thus, if
        A loses 5 dollars, B 9, and C 16, the sum is 30, and the
        average 10.
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     4. Any medial estimate or general statement derived from a
        comparison of diverse specific cases; a medium or usual
        size, quantity, quality, rate, etc. "The average of
        sensations." --Paley.
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     5. pl. In the English corn trade, the medial price of the
        several kinds of grain in the principal corn markets.
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     {On an average}, taking the mean of unequal numbers or
        quantities.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Average \Av"er*age\, a.
     1. Pertaining to an average or mean; medial; containing a
        mean proportion; of a mean size, quality, ability, etc.;
        ordinary; usual; as, an average rate of profit; an average
        amount of rain; the average Englishman; beings of the
        average stamp.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. According to the laws of averages; as, the loss must be
        made good by average contribution.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Average \Av"er*age\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Averaged} (?); p. pr.
     & vb. n. {Averaging}.]
     1. To find the mean of, when sums or quantities are unequal;
        to reduce to a mean.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To divide among a number, according to a given proportion;
        as, to average a loss.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To do, accomplish, get, etc., on an average.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Average \Av"er*age\, v. i.
     To form, or exist in, a mean or medial sum or quantity; to
     amount to, or to be, on an average; as, the losses of the
     owners will average twenty five dollars each; these spars
     average ten feet in length.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  average
       adj 1: approximating the statistical norm or average or expected
              value; "the average income in New England is below
              that of the nation"; "of average height for his age";
              "the mean annual rainfall" [syn: {mean(a)}]
       2: lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly
          encountered; "average people"; "the ordinary (or common)
          man in the street" [syn: {ordinary}]
       3: of no exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average
          merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair
          health"; "the caliber of the students has gone from
          mediocre to above average"; "the performance was middling
          at best" [syn: {fair}, {mediocre}, {middling}]
       4: around the middle of a scale of evaluation of physical
          measures; "an orange of average size"; "intermediate
          capacity"; "a plane with intermediate range"; "medium
          bombers" [syn: {intermediate}, {medium}]
       5: relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a
          distribution; "the modal age at which American novelists
          reach their peak is 30" [syn: {modal(a)}]
       6: relating to or constituting the middle value of an ordered
          set of values (or the average of the middle two in an
          even-numbered set); "the median value of 17, 20, and 36 is
          20"; "the median income for the year was $15,000" [syn: {median(a)}]
       n : a statistic describing the location of a distribution; "it
           set the norm for American homes" [syn: {norm}]
       v 1: amount to or come to an average, without loss or gain; "The
            number of hours I work per work averages out to 40"
            [syn: {average out}]
       2: achieve or reach on average; "He averaged a C"
       3: compute the average of [syn: {average out}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  136 Moby Thesaurus words for "average":
     Everyman, Public, accustomed, amidships, as a rule, average man,
     average out, avoid extremes, balance, banal, besetting, bisect,
     bourgeois, center, central, common, common man, common run,
     commonplace, conventional, core, current, customarily, customary,
     dominant, double, epidemic, equatorial, equidistant, everyday,
     everyman, everywoman, fair, fairish, familiar, fold, garden,
     garden-variety, general, generality, generally, girl next door,
     golden mean, habitual, halfway, happy medium, homme moyen sensuel,
     household, in the main, indifferent, interior, intermediary,
     intermediate, juste-milieu, mean, medial, median, mediocre,
     mediocrity, mediterranean, medium, mesial, mezzo, mid, middle,
     middle course, middle ground, middle point, middle position,
     middle state, middle-class, middle-of-the-road, middlemost,
     middling, midland, midmost, midpoint, midships, midway, moderate,
     no great shakes, norm, normal, normally, normative, nuclear,
     ordinarily, ordinary, ordinary Joe, ordinary run, pair off,
     pandemic, par, plastic, popular, predominant, predominating,
     prescriptive, prevailing, prevalent, rampant, regnant, regular,
     regulation, reigning, rife, routine, ruck, rule, ruling, run,
     run-of-mine, run-of-the-mill, running, so so, so-so,
     split the difference, standard, stereotyped, stock,
     strike a balance, suburban, take the average, typical, typically,
     undistinguished, unexceptional, universal, unnoteworthy,
     unremarkable, unspectacular, usual, usually, vernacular, via media,
     wonted