Search the Dictionary

upper diameter is less than the lower. -- Diminished, or Diminishing, scale, a scale of gradation used in finding the different points for drawing the spiral curve of the volute. Gwilt. -- Diminishing rule (Arch.), a board cut with a concave edge, for fixing the entasis and curvature of a shaft. -- Diminishing stil…

or consideration, or the state of being deprived of dignity; a lowering in estimation; degradation; abasement. The world's opinion or diminution of me. Eikon Basilike. Nor thinks it diminution to be ranked In military honor next. Philips.

sparagement to a star that it is not the sun. South. Imitation is a disparagement and a degradation in a Christian minister. I. Taylor.

letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations. Swift. Dissipation of energy. Same as Degradation of energy, under Degradation.

A hardened steel plate having a hole, or a gradation of conical holes, through which wires are drawn to be reduced and elongated.

A figure by which one striking circumstance is added, in due gradation, to another; climax; e. g., "He not only spared his enemies, but continued them in employment; not only continued, but advanced them." Johnson.

Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the Roman empire. Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall. Pope.

To change by fine gradations; as (Naut.), to fine down a ship's lines, to diminish her lines gradually. I often sate at home On evenings, watching how they fined themselves With gradual conscience to a perfect night. Browning.

Blended; passing into each other by subtle gradations; -- said of colors or of the surface or material on which the colors are laid.

Proceeding step by step, or by gradations; gradual. Could we have seen [Macbeth's] crimes darkening on their progress . . . could this gradatory apostasy have been shown us. A. Seward.

The quality or state of being gradual; regular progression or gradation; slowness. The gradualness of this movement. M. Arnold. The gradualness of growth is a characteristic which strikes the simplest observer. H. Drummond.

pertaining to or designating plates, processes, or the pictures made by them, in which gradation of tone in the photograph is reproduced by a graduated system of dotted and checkered spots, usually nearly invisible to the unaided eye, produced by the interposition between the camera and the object of a screen. The name…

The representation of a helmet over shields or coats of arms, denoting gradations of rank by modifications of form.

Variety; gradation; degree. Pope.

A shade of difference; a delicate gradation.

locality, of two or more distinct forms independent of sex, not connected by intermediate gradations, but produced from common parents.

The act of depriving, or taking away; hence, the depriving of rank or office; degradation in rank; deprivation. Bacon.

treat; as, the recess of the tides. Every degree of ignorance being so far a recess and degradation from rationality. South. My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered. Eikon Basilike.

The act of passing back or returning; retrogression; retrogradation. Sir T. Browne. Edge of regression (of a surface) (Geom.), the line along which a surface turns back upon itself; -- called also a cuspidal edge. -- Regression point (Geom.), a cusp.

h anything is removed; interval; distance; stage; hence, a step or degree in any scale of gradation; specifically, a division in an English public school; as, the boy went up two removes last year. A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator. Addison.