The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Meter \Me"ter\, n. [From Mete to measure.]
   1. One who, or that which, metes or measures. See
      Coal-meter.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. An instrument for measuring, and usually for recording
      automatically, the quantity measured.
      [1913 Webster]

   Dry meter, a gas meter having measuring chambers, with
      flexible walls, which expand and contract like bellows and
      measure the gas by filling and emptying.

   Wet meter, a gas meter in which the revolution of a
      chambered drum in water measures the gas passing through
      it.
      [1913 Webster]