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as in ascent or descent or from one state to another; regularly progressive; slow; as, a gradual increase of knowledge; a gradual decline. Creatures animate with gradual life Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up in man. Milton.

The state of being gradual; gradualness. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

In a gradual manner.

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.

To consume gradually; to waste away. [Obs.] Boyle.

Gradually accelerating the movement.

enerally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or sail from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.

An accession of land gradually washed to the shore or bank by the flowing of water. See Accretion.

Altering; gradually changing. Bacon.

Gradually changing, or tending to change, a morbid state of the functions into one of health. Burton.

A gradual progression from one type to another, generally ascending. Huxley.

s used to render glass, iron, etc., less brittle, performed by allowing them to cool very gradually from a high heat.

A flooring of plank before a dam to cause the water to make a gradual descent.

m of letter B is Roman, from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. The small b was formed by gradual change from the capital B.

To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.

To put round the bitts; as, to bitt the cable, in order to fasten it or to slacken it gradually, which is called veering away. Totten.

A light, gentle wind; a fresh, soft-blowing wind. Into a gradual calm the breezes sink. Wordsworth.

(Mus.) Gradually diminishing in rapidity and loudness.

A kind of joint by which an overlap joint is changed to a flush joint, by means of a gradually deepening rabbet, as at the ends of clinker-built boats.

, or bound by a common tie; a class or division of society; a coterie; a set. As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened. Macaulay.