[f. YARD sb.2 + WAND sb.] A three-foot rod for measuring. Also fig.
14[?]. Customs of Malton, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 61. j ȝerde wande, and weghttes.
1586. Durham Depos. (Surtees), 321. The yerdwand was not a lawfull yerdwand.
1614. Cornwallis, in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 165. Whom [sc. his daughter] had he measured by the yard-wand of the world he might perhaps have bestowed upon one of the greatest Monarchs in Christendom.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, 26. And were ’t not pity But both should serve the yardwand of the city?
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 453. He is sure to be … a mere yard-wand of Nature, and marked with as much brass as the implement he uses to measure frippery with.
1850. Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 7. If all our yard-wands and other measures were burnt.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. I. xiii. That the smooth-faced snubnosed rogue would leap from his counter and till, And strike, if he could, were it but with his cheating yardwand, home.
