Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Vernier

Ver′ni·er (·nĭ·ẽr), n. [So named after the inventor, Pierre Vernier.] A short scale made to slide along the divisions of a graduated instrument, as the limb of a sextant, or the scale of a barometer, for indicating parts of divisions. It is so graduated that a certain convenient number of its divisions are just equal to a certain number, either one less or one more, of the divisions of the instrument, so that parts of a division are determined by observing what line on the vernier coincides with a line on the instrument.

Vernier calipers, Vernier gauge, a gauge with a graduated bar and a sliding jaw bearing a vernier, used for accurate measurements. — Vernier compass, a surveyor's compass with a vernier for the accurate adjustment of the zero point in accordance with magnetic variation. — Vernier transit, a surveyor's transit instrument with a vernier compass.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.