| 释义 |
▪ I. gradatory, n.|ˈgreɪdətərɪ|
[as if ad. L. *gradātōrium, f. gradus step.]
A flight of steps, esp. those leading from the cloisters to the choir of a church.
1670in Blount Glossogr. (ed. 3). 1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser 159. 1721–1800 in Bailey. 1859Holland Gold F. xiii. 142 That which is above us, in allotment, gift, and acquisition, forms so many steps of the gradatory that leads from the cells where we do penance, to the temple.
▪ II. gradatory, a.|ˈgreɪdətərɪ|
[as if ad. L. *gradātōrius, f. grad-us step.]
1. Proceeding by steps or grades. rare.
1793A. Seward Lett. (1811) III. 202 The chain of subordination, which binds the various orders of national society in one common form of polity; that gradatory junction, which can alone give vigour and effect to the laws. Ibid. 243 Could this gradatory apostasy [of Macbeth] have been shown us. Ibid. 253. 1843 Fraser's Mag. XXVIII. 566 We find assembled, in its continuous extent of gradatory links, the whole chain of serving maidenhood.
2. Adapted for stepping (see quot.).
1842Brande Dict. Sci. etc., Gradatory, a term applied in Mammalogy to the extremities of a quadruped which are equal or nearly so, and adapted for ordinary progression on dry land. |