Other forms: yardsticks
A yardstick is a standard used for measuring or comparing. Use it as a yardstick.
The real one was a stick a yard long, kept for checking cloth. A yardstick is only useful if everybody agrees to use the same one.
1nounyardstickA standard used for measuring or comparing.
“Attendance was the only yardstick anybody had.”
yardstick is a standard.
Yard plus stick, from the measuring stick a yard in length.
From yard + stick.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA