1594 H. Plat Jewell House 11 Let there be a sharpe index, that may point vpon a table of wood.

1613 M. Ridley Short Treat. Magneticall Bodies 115 So that his broad Index..may be set to point out the degrees of the altitude of the pole.

1667 R. Towneley in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 458 Marking above 40,000 Divisions in a Foot, by the help of two Indexes.

1715 J. T. Desaguliers tr. N. Gauger Fires Improv'd 121 To know at sight in what manner the Holes are open..have an Index which takes up but little room.

1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. ii. §15. 263 Having brought the Place of the Sun to the Meridian, bring the Index to twelve a Clock.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Index of a Globe, is a little Stile fitted on to the North-Pole, and turning round with it, pointing to certain Divisions in the Hour-Circle.

1833 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal II. 296 The graduated arch passes through the loop, until the index on the edge of the loop is opposite zero.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxv. 190 The magnet to arrange the index of the thermometer.

1863 J. Watson Theory & Pract. Weaving vi. 209 After the wheel is turned, the next process is to divide its circumference into as many divisions as will make up the number of teeth required; this is done by an index which is fixed on the spindle of the lathe.

1879 J. J. Holtzapffel Turning & Mech. Manip. IV. v. 118 The index, is a steel spring or rod terminating in a point, which is inserted in any required series of holes, in any of the circles of the division plate, to retain the mandrel for the time, at rest, in certain relative positions. For example, to divide the work into 12 parts; the point of the index is placed successively in the holes 8. 16. 24. 32. etc. of the 96 circle..and while the mandrel is arrested at these points, the work is marked.

?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) i. xxiii. sig. Giij Laye the line fiduciall of your index vppon the beginning of the degrees in your Quadrant.

1682 in Early Rec. Town of Providence (Rhode Island) (1894) VI. 80 2 sights for sirveiors worke belonging to an Jndex.

1712 J. James tr. A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville Theory & Pract. Gardening 81 Two Rulers or Indexes, one immoveable..and the other moveable.

1793 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §97 To the index of the Theodolite was screwed a ruler..this index-ruler being carried horizontally round..the index would mark the degree and minute of the circle in which it is placed.

1807 C. Hutton Course Math. (ed. 5) II. 54 An index, which is a brass two-foot scale, with either a small telescope, or open sights set perpendicularly on the ends. These sights and one edge of the index are in the same plane, and that is called the fiducial edge of the index.

1817 Sporting Mag. 50 53 He put in a sharp blow on the bridge of Randall's nose, so that it pinked the index of Paddy in an instant.

1818 Sporting Mag. (N.S.) 2 280 The handy work of Martin upon his opponent's index was now apparent.

1828 P. Egan Finish Tom & Jerry 48 (Farmer) Kind~hearted Sue! Bless her pretty index. [Cf. 4b.]

1597 M. Drayton Englands Heroicall Epist. f. 2 ^v Least when my lisping guiltie tongue should hault, My lookes should be the Index to my fault.

1659 Abstr. Discov. in P. Heylyn Bibliotheca Regia 41 This is the only Index to us whereby that the blessing of God is present with you.

1747 Scheme Equip. Men of War 26 His Services would be Indexes denoting his Merit.

c1750 W. Shenstone Elegies ii. 36 And readers call their lost attention home Led by that index where true genius shines.

1803 J. Porter Thaddeus of Warsaw (1831) viii. 76 His uniform being black, he needed no other index than his pale and mournful countenance to announce that he was chief mourner.

1859 J. G. Holland Gold Foil i. 13 The proverbs of a nation furnish the index to its spirit and the result of its civilization.

1880 Nature 19 Sept. One of the first indices to the solution of the question lies in the situation of the oil-bearing regions.

1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. xxxviii. 52 They [sc. State Constitutions] are so instructive..as an index to present tendencies of American democracy.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 151 The square and flat Nose is the best signe and index thereof.

c1616 R. C. Times' Whistle (1871) ii. 632 Man is to man a subject of deceite; And that olde saying is vntrue, ‘the face Is index of the heart’.

1677 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. III iii. 193 Diodorus saith that Isis was wont to appear by night and to inject dreams..giving manifest indices of her presence.

1779 J. Moore View Society & Manners France (1789) I. xlii. 363 A sensible manly countenance..the true index of his character.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 211 A raised beach is therefore an index of elevation of the land.

1887 R. L. Stevenson Misadv. J. Nicholson i. 3 His son's empty guffaws..struck him with pain as the indices of a weak mind.

1660 T. Willsford Debitor & Creditor in Scales Commerce & Trade 209 Some men of very great Commerce and trading keep a Kalender, Register, or an Alphabeticall Index, of the names of Men, Wares, Ships.

a1734 R. North Lives of Norths (1826) I. 12 The master employed him to make an alphabetical index of all the verbs neuter.

1962 Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 27 Index, a sequence or array of items with keys, used to identify or locate records.

1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xvi. 261 The index can contain the addresses of all individual records, but if the file is ordered, it is usually more economic to make the index cruder.

1971 R. L. Boyes et al. Introd. Electronic Computing viii. 201 An index is simply a shorthand substitute for the original information and is used to assist in the location of a given record... The general form of an index..will contain these two items: 1. The index term. This is the shorthand description of a stored record... 2. Record identification or location. This may be a document number or the physical address of the record described by the index term.

1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. Qq2 The Index expurgatorius printed at Geneua and Strasbourg.

1625 J. Ussher Answer to Jesuite 513 Their old Expurgatory Index..set out by Cardinall Quiroga.

1639 R. Gentilis tr. P. Sarpi Hist. Inquisition 71 In the yeare 1607, they printed in Rome with publicke authority, a Booke intituled Index Expurgatorius.

1688 T. Brown Reasons Mr. Bays 15 To prevent, Sir, all storms that might have issued from that quarter, I presently set me up an Index expurgatorius.

1788 H. Walpole Reminiscences (1924) v. 42 I acquainted him with it..why he had been put into the queen's Index expurgatorius.

1845 W. M. Thackeray Pict. Rhapsody in Misc. Ess. (1885) 260 Knowing well that Fraser's Magazine is eagerly read at Rome, and not..excluded in the Index Expurgatorius.

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 20 Phi. What is that which you haue set at the end of the Verse? Ma. It is called an Index or director; for looke in what place it standeth, in that place doth the first note of the next Verse stand.

1869 P. A. Nuttall Dict. Sci. Terms 189 Index..in music, a character or director at the end of a stave to direct to the first note of the next stave.

1727 W. Mather Young Man's Compan. (ed. 13) 38 Index is a Note like a Hand, with the Forefinger pointing out at something that is remarkable, thus ☛.

1781 G. Crabbe Library 7 Till, every note and every comment known, They mark'd the spacious margin with their own; Minute corrections prov'd their studious care, The little Index pointing told us where.

a1690 S. Jeake Λογιστικηλογία (1696) 191 Mark their Indices, or how many degrees the Number you would produce is removed from the Root, as whether it be second, third, fourth, etc.

1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 279 Algebraic Signs for Addition, Subtraction, Indexes, Coefficients.

1810 C. Hutton Course Math. (ed. 6) I. 163 So 3 is the index of the cube or 3d power, and..⅓ is the index of the cube root.

1859 B. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 198 The figures 2, 3,..m, denoting the number of factors which produce the powers, are called Indices.

1678 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) (at cited word) In Logarithmical Arithmetick Index is that which represents the distance of the first figure of any whole number from Unity.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Index, in Arithmetic, is the same with what is sometimes call'd the Characteristic, or Exponent of a Logarithm.

1795 C. Hutton Math. & Philos. Dict. II. 46/1 The Index is also called the Characteristic of the Logarithms, and is always an integer, either positive or negative, or else = 0.

1828 Moore's Pract. Navigator (ed. 20) 25 Whatever index you make represent unity, omit it in the sum of the indices.

1957 D. D. McCracken Digital Computer Programming viii. 99 Instructions which call for an index to be added are written with the one or two following the address.

1959 J. W. Carr in E. M. Grabbe et al. Handbk. Automation, Computation & Control II. ii. 51 When the values of the bound variables (usually indices) that assume a sequence of different values during the course of a problem solution change..such variables are changed in actual, although not notational value. By a change in such an index, therefore, no change is made in the flow diagram notation, although the actual value of free or floating variables will change.

1959 J. W. Carr in E. M. Grabbe et al. Handbk. Automation, Computation & Control II. ii. 55 Many artificial instruction codes..use such index registers to speed up hand programming. A certain portion of every instruction word is used to designate just how that particular instruction is to be modified with respect to one or more such special locations, which have been filled with specified values of an index.

1961 H. D. Leeds & G. M. Weinberg Computer Programming Fund. vi. 177 Flow diagrams will be generally easier to follow if we can represent our control logic in enumerative terminology. To do this we make use of an index rather than an actual computed quantity on the flow diagram to show the count.

1962 Y. Chu Digital Computer Design Fund. xii. 454 The amount of change of an address, called the index value, is stored in an index register.

1962 Y. Chu Digital Computer Design Fund. xii. 454 The number in the index field [of an instruction] designates the index register selected.

1962 H. D. Huskey & G. A. Korn Computer Handbk. xx. 29 The index is not always added, so there is an address modifier..which determines whether the index is to be added to the address or not.

1966 B. A. M. Moon Computer Programming vii. 117 Within the range of the DO no statement is permitted which alters the value of the index.

1969 V. J. Calderbank Course on Programming in FORTRAN IV iv. 36 The DO statement automatically causes execution of all the statements following it up to and including the statement labelled n for values of i from m₁ in steps of m₃... The counter i is sometimes referred to as the index of the loop.

1969 C. W. Gear Computer Organization & Programming ii. 53 There are four items of information to be specified—the start of the loop in memory (X), the initial value of the index (o), the increment (1), and the end condition on the index (999).

1969 C. W. Gear Computer Organization & Programming ii. 52 We can indicate this in our program writing by using Y to mean the unindexed address Y (that is, the index bits are o) and by using Y,I to mean the address Y indexed by index register I.

1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing vi. 101 The character..in the last position means that the content of the corresponding index register is to be added to the address... The last position of the instruction can be called the ‘index tag’.

1962 R. V. Oakford Introd. Electronic Data Processing Equipm. iv. 101 Assume that 15 independent quantities are stored in memory registers 0016 through 0030 and that another 15 independent quantities are stored in registers 0031 through 0045. The location of the ith register in the first set may be designated as A_i, while that of the second set may be designated as B_i; then i can be considered as an index that assumes the values 1, 2, 3,…, 14, 15. Thus A_i is equal to 0016.

1972 H. S. Stone Introd. Computer Organization vi. 120 The FORTRAN statement dimension x(100) creates an array named x with 100 elements such that the first has index 1 and the last has index 100.

1829 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) I. Optics ii. 4 The number 1.336, which regulates the refraction of water, is called its index, or exponent, or co-efficient of refraction, and some~times its refractive power.

1871 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. xi. 340 The media must possess different refractive indices.

1866 T. H. Huxley in S. Laing Pre-hist. Remains Caithness 83 The term cephalic index..indicates the ratio of the extreme transverse to the extreme longitudinal diameter of a skull, the latter measurement being taken as unity.

1882 Quain's Elements Anat. (ed. 9) I. 82 The proportion of this [the height of the skull] to the length..is the index of height.

1882 Quain's Elements Anat. (ed. 9) I. 83 The nasal index of Broca.

1882 Quain's Elements Anat. (ed. 9) I. 85 The orbital index is the ratio of the vertical height of the base of the orbit to the transverse width.

1868 J. D. Dana Syst. Mineral. (ed. 5) Introd. 28 Miller..uses the letters h, l, k, as ‘indices’ referring to the axes.

1878 H. P. Gurney Crystallogr. 18 The three numbers h, k, and l are called the indices of the plane, and the three together hkl is called its symbol.

1895 N. Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. 472 The introduction of the fourth index [in Bravais' notation].

1886 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1885 872 The index for quantity is the same as that for value in the standard year (1883); that for 1884 is arrived at by dividing the value index by the price index, and is shown in the last column.

1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 759/1 Suppose that the modification of diet (margarine instead of butter, decrease of sugar and eggs and increase of other foods) reduces the food index to 260,..and the index is 200 instead of 305.

1927 A. L. Bowley & J. C. Stamp National Income 1924 31 Average earnings of all wage-earners for a full working-week are estimated to have increased 94 per cent. between 1914 and 1924, while the Cost of Living Index rose 75 per cent.

1942 J. R. Hicks Social Framework xv. 160 The most famous of all British index-numbers is the cost-of-living index published by the Ministry of Labour. The basket of goods on which this index is based is supposed to be that consumed in a week by a representative working-class family. It is thus an index of very fundamental importance... It covers a large part of the field which would be covered by the ideal index which we should desire to have for measuring the national income in real terms.

1955 Times 31 Aug. 9/3 Their members have expressed lack of confidence in the index as a measurement of their living costs.

1958 Spectator 22 Aug. 261/2 Industrial equity shares touched bottom—161·5 for the index.

1969 Daily Tel. 13 June 3 The index would have dropped say 12 points, War Loan would have continued its downhill march.

1972 Accountant 28 Sept. 398/1 When the heaviest Index fall in a day is accompanied by a reduction in the number of Stock Exchange recorded bargains to under 8,000, it can only be assumed that the vast bulk of the 8,000 deals was the same selling way.

1973 Daily Tel. 12 Apr. 21/3 The provisional price index of goods manufactured for the home market rose by just over 0·25 p.c., compared with 0·5 p.c. in both January and February.

1720 R. Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 522 Since the Letters are not indexed, I cannot point out all the places.

a1832 W. Scott in J. G. Lockhart Mem. Life Sir W. Scott (1837) II. v. 173 There were always huge piles of materials to be arranged, sifted, and indexed.

1851 T. Carlyle Life J. Sterling ii. ii. 154 Sterling's Letters..a large collection of which now lies before me, duly copied and indexed.

1885 Law Times 79 159/1 The contents are exceedingly well indexed.

1969 C. W. Gear Computer Organization & Programming vi. 242 Each time that a file was completed, the system would index it; that is, its name would be placed in a table of file names..with an indication of where it was physically located.

1969 P. B. Jordain Condensed Computer Encycl. 242 If the cylinder index becomes too long, a master index may be created to index it.

1894 Harper's Mag. Mar. 552/1 The accompanying diagram of an abstract flower, the various parts being indexed.

1902 [implied in: Internat. Library of Technol. II. §15. 21 Direct indexing is done by the aid of an index plate fastened direct to the index-head spindle; that is, the index plate is moved to obtain the divisions. In indirect indexing, the index plate is normally stationary, and the index-head spindle is rotated by the use of suitable gearing. Indirect indexing is divided into..simple and compound indexing. (at indexing n. 2)].

1913 [implied in: Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. (ed. 4) 439 Index centres, the head, and the tail stock between which work is carried to be pitched or indexed. (at index centre n. at index n. Compounds 2)].

1936 F. H. Colvin & F. A. Stanley Drilling & Surfacing Pract. xxii. 242 Turning the indexing crank without this geared connection indexes the spindle in any desired number of graduations, or parts of a circle.

1951 H. C. Town in Gen. Engin. Workshop Pract. (ed. 2) iii. 112/2 A spring-loaded plunger..locates the turret in any one of four positions... To index the turret, the ball handle is revolved and the screw lifts the turret clear of the locating plunger, so that it can be rotated to the next..position, and then locked in position.

1953 L. E. Doyle Metal Machining ix. 214 The workpiece is turned by means of the worm and wheel and is indexed by the pin that registers in holes in the face of the worm wheel.

1953 L. E. Doyle Metal Machining xiii. 298 On a dividing head with a 40 to 1 ratio, one full turn of the crank is needed to index a 40 tooth gear from one tooth space to the next.

1959 Machinery XCIV. 511/2 Spacing of the holes axially along the length of the rod is accomplished by indexing the rod vertically in 0·026-in. steps by means of an accurate lead-screw.

1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) VII. 407/2 When the turret [of the lathe] is indexed for successive operations, the saddle acts as a guide for the ram in its strokes to and from the work.

1900 Machinery (N.Y.) Nov. 88/2 For indexing prime numbers we must use other than the one-hole basis.

1923 R. C. H. Heck Mechanics of Machinery: Mechanism v. 237 The test or criterion of ability to index any number n is expressed by putting Eq. (89) into the form c = 40 × h/n.

1936 F. H. Colvin & F. A. Stanley Drilling & Surfacing Pract. xxii. 242 The index sector is a great convenience in counting holes to index the required number of divisions.

1961 L. E. Doyle et al. Manuf. Processes xxiv. 587 Several means are available for indexing numbers not obtainable with standard plain indexing, especially large numbers.

1901 Machinery (N.Y.) Jan. 147/1 To divide into 91 parts, index forward, on the front side of the plate, six spaces on the 39 circle; then index forward on the back of the plate, 14 spaces on the 49 circle.

1953 L. E. Doyle Metal Machining xiii. 298 The crank must be turned 40 ÷ 36 = 1⁴/ ₃₆ = 1¹/ ₉ turns to index from one space to another on the gear.

1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) VII. 409/1 A horizontal, circular table holding the rotating chucks indexes under the vertical spindles with a different operation being performed at each station.

1968 Boothroyd & Redford Mechanized Assembly ii. 8 With continuous transfer the work carriers are moving at constant speed whilst the workheads index backwards and forwards.

1968 Boothroyd & Redford Mechanized Assembly ii. 13 Reciprocation of the transfer bar over a distance equal to the spacing of the workheads will cause the work carriers to index between the workheads.