| 释义 |
gradation|grəˈdeɪʃən|
Also 6–7 gradacion.
[ad. L. gradātiōn-em, n. of action f. grad-us step: see grade n. and -ation. Cf. F. gradation (1520 in sense 8 a, which is the earliest recorded sense also in English.]
†1. The process of advancing step by step; a course of gradual progress. Obs.
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 39 Loue..should enter into the eye, and by long gradations passe into the heart. c1630Risdon Surv. Devon (1810) 14, I purpose my beginning in the east part..my gradation into the south with the sun. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. ii. (1840) 43 Knowledge had its gradations too, and though it must be confessed it was a very slow rate, yet some advances they did make. 1750Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. ccxviii. 340, I am very well satisfied with the progress you have made in that language..according to that gradation you will [etc.].
†b. Period of advance; length of career. Obs.—1
1613–16W. Browne Brit. Past. i. iv, They civilly had spent their lives gradation As meeke and milde as in their first creation.
2. A series of successive conditions, qualities, events, etc., forming stages in a process or course. (In early instances prob. suggested by 8 a.) ? Obs.
1549Latimer 5th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 139 What was the waye they walked?.. They stouped after gayne..What folowed?.. They toke..brybes..What then?.. They turned Iustice vpsedowne [see 1 Sam. viii. 3]..Here is the Deuyles genealogye. A gradation of the Diuyles making. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iii, The care I had of that civil young man..drew me to that exhortation, which drew the company..which drew the cut-purse; which drew the money; which drew my brother Cokes his loss; which drew on Waspe's anger; which drew on my beating: a pretty gradation! 1675South Serm. Ingratitude (1715) 429 So certain it is, by a direct Gradation of Consequences from this principle of merit, that [etc.]. 1717L. Howel Desiderius 12 Love of God is to be attain'd by a gradation of religious Virtues. 1739Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 49 That such a pile of English fame and glory..should..so..moulder away in one continual gradation of political errors. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvii. III. 29 The son..attained, in the regular gradation of civil honours, the station of consular of Liguria.
3. pl. Steps, progressive movements. Now only in immaterial sense, stages of transition or advance.
1599Warn. Faire Wom. ii. 3 You have..by gradations seen how we have grown Into the main stream of our tragedy. 1662J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII, etc. (1867) 129 The Cameleon..winding its tail about the sticks of the cage, to help and secure its gradations. 1671Tillotson Serm. ii. 103 The several gradations by which men at last come to this horrid degree of impiety. 1712Steele Spect. No. 430 ⁋2, I hope you will..give us the History of Plenty and Want, and the natural Gradations towards them. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 48 The Steelyard passed with the rest of the parish by the same easy gradations from the old to the new faith.
†b. sing. A means of gradual transition. Obs.
1710Cromwell Let. to Pope 3 Aug., 'Tis an interpolation indeed, and serves for a gradation to the Cœlestial Orb.
†4. pl. Configurations or arrangements resembling a flight of steps. Obs. rare.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 260 The Foundations Black Marble with gradations to the bottom. 1727Swift Gulliver iii. i. 181, I could see the sides of it encompassed with several gradations of galleries. 1802tr. A. La Fontaine's Reprobate II. 279 They then descended the gradations of the rock together.
5. A scale or series of degrees in rank, merit, intensity, or difference from some particular type; the fact or condition of including or being arranged in a series of degrees.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 158 Although perchance existing Individuals may not be actually Infinite, yet certain it is that the potential gradation of things may be potentially Infinite. 1783Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 206, I plainly observed a gradation in the damage done to the buildings..in proportion as the countries were more or less distant from this supposed center of the evil. 1808J. Webster Nat. Phil. 170 This changes by gradation into an orange, thence into a yellow, and as the rays rise higher, into a green, blue, indigo, and violet. 1831Brewster Nat. Magic vi. (1833) 153 Hence there will necessarily arise a gradation of density. 1832H. Martineau Life in Wilds vii. 96 No man can be more sensible than I am of the advantages of a gradation of ranks in society. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Relig. Wks. (Bohn) II. 96 The gradation of the clergy..makes them the link which unites the sequestered peasantry with the intellectual advancement of the age. 1863H. Cox Instit. iii. vi. 670 The present system of a gradation of officers, each imposing a check upon the other. 1864H. Spencer Biol. I. 6 The several compounds of oxygen with nitrogen, present us with an instructive gradation. 1879Maclear Mark ix. 105 There is order and gradation in the hierarchy of blessed spirits.
†b. Position in a scale, relative rank. Obs.
1604Shakes. Oth. i. i. 37 Preferment goes by Letter, and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood Heire to th' first. 1802tr. A. La Fontaine's Reprobate I. 39 She had received a better education than was generally bestowed on others of the same gradation in life.
6. pl. Degrees of rank, merit, intensity, etc.; successively differing varieties of form or properties, constituting a series intermediate in character between two conditions or types.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. vi. §2. 23 The sober and grounded inquiry [as to angels, etc.] which may arise..out of the Gradacions of Nature is not restrained. 1660Trial Regic. 41 The Indictment contains many Circumstances, and Gradations, in the Treason. 1758Johnson Idler No. 7 ⁋9, I cannot pretend to inform our generals through what gradations of danger they shall train their men to fortitude. 1783Burke Rep. Affairs Ind. Wks. 1842 II. 9 They thought it not unnecessary here to state the gradations in the service. 1793Holcroft Lavater's Physiog. ii. 20 Who shall enumerate the gradations between insect and man? 1813Bakewell Introd. Geol. (1815) 447 Granite, porphyry, sienite, green-stone and basalt pass by..insensible gradations into each other. 1836Macgillivray tr. Humboldt's Trav. xxiv. 370 In this district are displayed in a remarkable manner the gradations of vegetation. 1856Masson Ess. x. 473 Thus..prose passes into verse by visible gradations. 1875Darwin Insectiv. Pl. iii. 58 There were gradations in the completeness of the process.
7. The action of arranging in a series of grades.
1858Whewell Novum Org. Renovatum 220 The method of gradation consists in taking a number of stages of a property in question, intermediate between two extreme cases which appear to be different.
8. a. Rhet. = climax 1. ? Obs.
1538Elyot Dict., Climax, a ladder, and the fygure callydde gradation. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 109 Gradacion is when we reherse the worde that goeth nexte before, and bryng another woorde thereupon that encreaseth the matter, as though one should go vp a paire of staiers, and not leaue til he come at the toppe. 1573G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 51 In time, bi his troth, for ani thing he knew..this verri gradation he usid himself with me at that time. 1627H. Burton Baiting Pope's Bull 29 Concluding this clause with a rhetoricall gradation, that neither the prison, the racke, nor death it selfe should daunt them. 1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace xiv. 277 We may observe a notable climax or gradation in those Scriptures that speak of His glory. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Gradation, in rhetoric, is when a series of considerations or proofs is brought, rising by degrees, and improving each on the other.
†b. Logic. = sorites. Obs. rare.
1727–41Chambers Cycl., Gradation, in logic, is an argumentation, consisting of four or more propositions, so disposed, as that the attribute of the first is the subject of the second; and the attribute of the second, the subject of the third; and so on, till the last attribute come to be predicated of the subject of the first proposition.
†9. Alch. ‘Exaltation’ or raising to a higher degree (see quot. 1612). Obs.
1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 271 Gradation is an exaltation of Metals in the degree of affections, where by waight, colour, and constancy they are brought to an excellent measure, but the substance unaltered: so Gold is rubified, fixed, and purified. 1641French Distill. vi. (1651) 188 Pour upon it..Aqua regia, and the water of gradation. 1727–41Chambers Cycl.
10. Fine Arts.
a. Painting. An insensible passing from one colour or shade to another.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., The painters also use the word gradation for an insensible change of colour, by the diminution of the teints and shades. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 84 Blues, reds, greens and yellows not being blended in the gradations. 1821Craig Lect. Drawing iv. 228 To gratify the sight, by delicate contrasts, and impossible gradations. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. (1851) II. iii. i. v. §16 What curvature is to lines, gradation is to shades and colours... Absolutely without gradation no natural surface can possibly be. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life ii. i. (1875) 50 The amateur..finds that the gradation of his sky will not come right. 1887Q. Rev. CLXIV. 109 In the production of gradations of effect in gold the Japanese stand alone.
b. Archit. (See quot.)
1727–41Chambers Cycl., Gradation, in architecture, signifies an artful disposition of parts, rising, as it were, by steps, or degrees, after the manner of an amphitheatre; so that those placed before do no disservice..to those behind.
c. Mus. ‘A diatonic ascending or descending succession of chords’ (Brande Dict. Sci. etc. 1842).
1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Gradation (F.), Gradazione (I.), gradation; by degrees of the scale.
11. Philol. = ablaut. Also, a modification (of a vowel) resulting from ablaut.
1870Sweet in Trans. Philol. Soc. i. 3 Au being the second ‘gradation’ of u...The first gradation of u is eô. 1887Skeat Princ. Eng. Etymol. x. §134. 156 Some of the older vowel-sounds..are to a certain extent connected by what is known as ‘gradation,’ or in German, ablaut.
¶12. = graduation. rare—1 (possibly misprint).
1759Goldsm. Polite Learn. (1774) 43, I have sometimes attended their disputes at gradation.
Hence graˈdationed ppl. a., formed by or with gradations.
1805W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. III. 288 Under a gradationed representation, the electoral body..become the real constituents. 1808― Ibid. VI. 269 To depute by universal suffrage, but gradationed delegation, the wisest depositaries of their wishes respecting [etc.]. |