1638 H. Hexham tr. S. Marolois Art of Fortification i. 19 The reason sesquitertia is, as 4 to 3, for AB to BC, then the imaginall angle BAC wilbe 36 degrees, 52 minutes, 12 seconds.

1647 H. More Philos. Poems ii. i. ii. xxx That inward life's th' impresse imaginall Of Natures Art.

1647 H. More Philos. Poems iv. xxi They would be alike wise, Know one anothers thoughts imaginall.

1833 Biblical Repertory Apr. 261 We do not undertake this..from an imaginal necessity of rallying to its support.

1881 Science July 18/2 Abstracting the more interesting, sensible qualities of things from the ideas of these things in his mind (imaginal ideas).

1925 J. E. Turner Theory Direct Realism iv. 42 The imaginal and ideal elements, although of course they are undoubtedly present in the percipient's mind, never reveal themselves to him in their proper nature.

1935 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 445 The imaginal retention of a previously perceived common element.

1951 G. Humphrey Thinking iv. 129 Sensory aspects of experience which we may call imaginal, affective and cognitive.

2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 165/2 Occultists compare the Ka to the astral body, which can be projected into a mental or imaginal realm and act as a vehicle for exploring the more subtle planes of consciousness.

1647 H. More Philos. Poems i. i. xvi No might imaginall May reach that vast profunditie.

1658 J. Webb tr. G. de Costes de La Calprenède Hymen's Præludia: 8th Pt. viii. ii. 181 With all imaginall pomp.

1909 E. B. Titchener Lect. Exper. Psychol. Thought-processes iii. 104 If the word had a special significance or if it stood alone, I might take its meaning imaginally; a group of apperceiving ideas—the idea of its sound, the visual image of a bell—might spring up and assimilate it.

1925 I. A. Richards Princ. Lit. Crit. xviii. 157 As the eye wanders imaginally from point to point the relations between the parts of the picture-space change.

2002 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 8 304 Dreams..are, generally, experienced imaginally and then subsequently accounted for as imaginary.

1865 Proc. Entomol. Soc. Philadelphia 4 321 The imaginal habits must thus be regarded as a fresh character in addition to its numerous analogies with the Notodontians.

1891 19th Cent. Apr. 642 What are called ‘imaginal characters’—points of structure which indicate that the larva has descended from an imago.

1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects ii. 38 The mayflies, where there are two winged stages, a sub-imaginal and an imaginal.

1967 Bull. Entomol. Res. 57 333 Pupal development may take place before death: in one instance orange-coloured imaginal eyes were present.

2005 P. J. Gullan & P. S. Cranston Insects (ed. 3) vi. 142 All insects with determinate growth become reproductively mature in the final instar, called the adult or imaginal instar.

1874 Amer. Naturalist 8 662 A surprising analogy to the development of the Echinoderm occurs in the formation of the imaginal disks.

1963 C. M. Williams in J. M. Allen Nature Biol. Diversity 251 The specialized structures of the caterpillar are swept away and replaced by new organs arising from the imaginal discs.

2003 Focus July 53/4 As they develop from an egg and progress through several moultings, caterpillars retain 10 pairs of larval-cell bundles called ‘imaginal discs’.