See Also: Mean of the sample(money)
Sample(medicine)
sample(2)(dictionary)
sample(1)(dictionary)
Sample(money)
sample 2, verb(dictionary)
sample 1, noun(dictionary)
Random sample(health)
Random Sample(money)
SAMPLE, contracts(law)

sample(1) (iou)



sample noun & adjective. ME.
[Aphet. from Anglo-Norman assample var. of Old French essample EXAMPLE noun.]
A. noun.
A fact, incident, story, etc., serving to bear out some proposition or statement. Cf. EXAMPLE noun 1. ME-E16.
Action or conduct viewed as worthy of imitation; a person whose conduct deserves imitation; = EXAMPLE noun 5. ME-E17.
A relatively small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like; a specimen; spec. (a) Commerce a small amount of a fabric, foodstuff, or other commodity, presented or shown to a prospective customer as a specimen of the goods offered for sale; (b) a specimen taken for scientific testing or analysis; (c) an illustrative or typical example; (d) Statistics a portion selected from a population, the study of which is intended to provide statistical estimates relating to the whole. LME.
random sample: see RANDOM adjective.
New York Times 'Pushers' of narcotics..sometimes offered free samples to beginners. N. Calder To recover samples of the mud from the ocean floor. P. Parish The size of the sample of patients must be statistically representative. Which? A sample of cells is gently scraped off the cervix with a spatula or brush.
A sound, esp. a piece of music, created by sampling (see SAMPLE verb 3c). L20.
Comb.: sample-bag (a) (chiefly Austral.) a bag containing a commercial traveller's or advertiser's (orig. free) samples; (b) a small bag used by merchants and farmers to carry samples of corn etc.; sample book: containing samples of fabric, wallpaper, etc., for prospective buyers; sample bottle: in which samples of fluid esp. from the body may be collected; sample card a piece of cardboard to which is fastened a sample of fabric, wallpaper, etc.; a pattern card; sample case: containing samples carried by a commercial traveller; sample point Statistics a single possible observed value of a variable; sample room: in which samples are kept for inspection or displayed to prospective customers; sample space Statistics the range of values of a random variable.
b. attrib. or as adjective. Serving as a sample. E19.
M. Gordon Lavinia did a sample interview with me. American Speech Murray accepted the editorship in 1878 on the basis of sample pages.