If you use someone or something as a yardstick, you use them as a standard for comparison when you are judging other people or things.
例句
There has been no yardstick by which potential students can assess individual schools before signing up for a course.有意就讀的學(xué)生在報(bào)名參加一門課程前沒有任何參照標(biāo)準(zhǔn)去衡量各個(gè)學(xué)校的水平。She had never had a real boyfriend before and so had no yardstick by which to compare Charles's behaviour...她以前從沒有過真正的男朋友，所以沒有可參照的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來對(duì)比查爾斯的行為。
英漢詞典釋義
n.
比較或衡量的標(biāo)準(zhǔn);尺度
By any yardstick, that’s a large amount of money.用任何標(biāo)準(zhǔn)衡量，那都是巨大的金額。The new test provides a yardstick against which to measure children’s learning.新的測(cè)試提供了一個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)去檢測(cè)兒童的學(xué)習(xí)。
英英詞典釋義
Noun
1. a measure or standard used for comparison;
"on what kind of yardstick is he basing his judgment?"