SCALES

noun

1. A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
2. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement, means of assigning a magnitude.
3. Size; scope.

verb

1. To change the size of something whilst maintaining proportion; especially to change a process in order to produce much larger amounts of the final product.
2. To climb to the top of.
3. To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.

noun

1. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard pieces of keratin covering the skin of an animal, particularly a fish or reptile.
2. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
3. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.