noun
- a stick a yard long, commonly marked with subdivisions, used for measuring.
- any standard of measurement or judgment: Test scores are not the only yardstick of academic achievement.
noun
- a measure or standard used for comparisonon what kind of yardstick is he basing his criticism?
- a graduated stick, one yard long, used for measurement
n.1816, from yard (n.2) + stick (n.).