gradatory
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Compare Latin gradatarium.
Noun
[edit]gradatory (plural gradatories)
- (architecture) A series of steps from a cloister into a church.
Adjective
[edit]gradatory (comparative more gradatory, superlative most gradatory)
- (archaic) Proceeding step by step; gradual.
- May 31 1793, Anna Seward, letter to — Eccles:
- Could we have seen [Macbeth's] crimes darkening on their progress […] could this gradatory apostasy have been shown us.
- (zoology) Suitable for walking, or able to walk (said of an animal, especially a bird, or of the limbs of an animal when adapted for walking on land).
- 1897, John van Denburgh, The Reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin:
- Under this name we group together a large number of very similar forms; or if dissimilar, forms connected by gradatory specimens
References
[edit]- “gradatory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.