The students of that day, if we may judge from the accounts which we have of their poor commons, would have used far different words, in addressing the Faculty, from King Lear, who, speaking to his daughter Regan, says:—­

       “’T is not in thee
  To grudge my pleasures,...
    ... to scant my sizes.”

SIZE.  In the University of Cambridge, Eng., to size is to order any sort of victuals from the kitchens which the students may want in their rooms, or in addition to their commons in the hall, and for which they pay the cooks or butchers at the end of each quarter; a word corresponding to BATTEL at Oxford.—­Encyc.  Brit.

In the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1795, p. 21, a writer says:  “At dinner, to size is to order for yourself any little luxury that may chance to tempt you in addition to the general fare, for which you are expected to pay the cook at the end of the term.”

This word was formerly used in the older American colleges with the meaning given above, as will be seen by the following extracts from the laws of Harvard and Yale.

“When they come into town after commons, they may be allowed to size a meal at the kitchen.”—­Laws of Harv.  Coll., 1798, p. 39.

“At the close of each quarter, the Butler shall make up his bill against each student, in which every article sized or taken up by him at the Buttery shall be particularly charged.”—­Laws Yale Coll., 1811, p. 31.

“As a college term,” says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, “it is of very considerable antiquity.  In the comedy called ’The Return from Parnassus,’ 1606, one of the character says, ’You that are one of the Devil’s Fellow-Commoners; one that sizeth the Devil’s butteries,’ &c.  Again, in the same:  ’Fidlers, I use to size my music, or go on the score for it.’”

For is often used after the verb size, without changing the meaning of the expression.

The tables of the Undergraduates, arranged according to their respective years, are supplied with abundance of plain joints, and vegetables, and beer and ale ad libitum, besides which, soup, pastry, and cheese can be “sized for,” that is, brought in portions to individuals at an extra charge.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 19.

To size upon another.  To order extra food, and without permission charge it to another’s account.

If any one shall size upon another, he shall be fined a Shilling, and pay the Damage; and every Freshman sent [for victuals] must declare that he who sends him is the only Person to be charged.—­Laws Yale Coll., 1774, p. 10.

SIZING.  Extra food or drink ordered from the buttery; the act of ordering extra food or drink from the buttery.

Dr. Holyoke, who graduated at Harvard College in 1746, says:  “The breakfast was two sizings of bread and a cue of beer.”  Judge Wingate, who graduated a little later, says:  “We were allowed at dinner a cue of beer, which was a half-pint, and a sizing of bread, which I cannot describe to you.  It was quite sufficient for one dinner.”—­Peirce’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., p. 219.