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Augmenting, gaining, or giving force, by successive additions; as, a cumulative argument, i. e., one whose force increases as the statement proceeds. The argument . . . is in very truth not logical and single, but moral and cumulative. Trench.

An interval of time in which a certain succession of events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of something peculiar; as, the cucle of the seasons, or of the year. Wages . . . bear a full proportio…

Happening, or belonging to, each successive day; diurnal; as, daily labor; a daily bulletin. Give us this day our daily bread. Matt. vi. 11. Bunyan has told us . . . that in New England his dream was the daily subject of the conversation of thousands. Macaulay.

al accompaniment; to go through, either alone or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhytmically. Jack shall pipe and Gill shall dance. Wiher. Good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your dauther Shak.

ng; to begin; to be dated or reckoned; -- with from. The Batavian republic dates from the successes of the French arms. E. Everett.

-- ordinarily divided into twenty-four hours. It is measured by the interval between two successive transits of a celestial body over the same meridian, and takes a specific name from that of the body. Thus, if this is the sun, the day (the interval between two successive transits of the sun's center over the same mer…

To divide; to separate in portions; hence, to give in portions; to distribute; to bestow successively; -- sometimes with out. Is not to deal thy bread to the hungry Is. lviii. 7. And Rome deals out her blessings and her gold. Tickell. The nightly mallet deals resounding blows. Gay. Hissing through the skies, the feathe…

with for or against; as, victory declares against the allies. Like fawning courtiers, for success they wait, And then come smiling, and declare for fate. Dryden.

A name given by Haüy to the successive diminution of the layers of molecules, applied to the faces of the primitive form, by which he supposed the secondary forms to be produced.

disappoint all his hopes. Tillotson. The escheators . . . defeated the right heir of his succession. Hallam. In one instance he defeated his own purpose. A. W. Ward.

to linger; to tarry. There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten. Locke.

Transmission by formal act or conveyance to an heir or successor; transference; especially, the transfer or transmission of the crown or royal authority to a successor.

The act of despairing or becoming desperate; a giving up of hope. This desperation of success chills all our industry. Hammond.

To unfold gradually, as a flower from a bud; hence, to bring through a succession of states or stages, each of which is preparatory to the next; to form or expand by a process of growth; to cause to change gradually from an embryo, or a lower state, to a higher state or form of being; as, sunshine and rain develop the…

ry (Biol.), the doctrine that animals and plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, and that all the higher forms of life now in existence were thus developed by uniform laws from lower forms, and are not the result of special creative acts. See th…

Transference from one person to another; a passing or devolving upon a successor. The devolution of the crown through a . . . channel known and conformable to old constitutional requisitions. De Quincey.

To pass by transmission or succession; to be handed over or down; -- generally with on or upon, sometimes with to or into; as, after the general fell, the command devolved upon (or on) the next officer in rank. His estate . . . devolved to Lord Somerville. Johnson.

Successive division and subdivision, as of a stem of a plant or a vein of the body, into two parts as it proceeds from its origin; successive bifurcation.

confidence in others; distrustful. [Archaic] You were always extremely diffident of their success. Melmoth.

Having two successive sets of teeth (deciduous and permanent), one succeeding the other; as, a diphyodont mammal; diphyodont dentition; -- opposed to monophyodont. -- n.