c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 1963 Infinite been the sorwes and the teerys Of olde folk. and folk of tendre yeerys.

1483 W. Caxton tr. Caton I ij Many and Infynyte euyles and inconuenientes.

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. i. f. 88^v Not onely..infinite hundredes and legions, but also myriades of men.

1556 tr. J. de Flores Histoire de Aurelio & Isabelle sig. L6 She and heir ladeis shedde infinite teares.

1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. 5 Now the Latine Translations were too many to be all good, for they were infinite.

1668 M. Hale Pref. Rolle's Abridgm. b ij Infinite other Instances of like nature may be given.

1709 J. Addison Tatler No. 119. ⁋2 There are infinite Parts in the smallest Portion of Matter.

1775 J. Harris Philos. Arrangem. iii. 57 Thus there are..infinite ways of being vicious, though but one of being virtuous.

1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia I. iii. xviii. 355 The Swedes..found infinite ‘pigs, near Insterburg’.

1520 R. Whittington Uulgaria sig. B.v Nownes infinyte, as quisquis, quicunque.

1553 T. Wilson Arte of Rhetorique 1 Either it is an infinite question and without ende, or els it is definite and comprehended within some ende.

1663 J. Spencer Disc. Prodigies (1665) 111 It is a blind, confused, infinite, giddy thing.

1869 F. A. G. Ouseley Treat. Counterpoint xv. 105 If [the canon] is made continually to recur to the beginning, so as never to come to a regular close, it is called Infinite, or Circular.

1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 69/2 The above is also an infinite canon, because, anyone having such a remarkable desire as to play it for ever, could do so.

1880 G. Grove Dict. Music Many canons lead back to the beginning and thus become ‘circular’ or ‘infinite’.

1959 Collins Mus. Encycl. at Canon If..each part, on coming to the end of the melody, goes back to the beginning again and repeats, the result is a ‘perpetual’ or ‘infinite’ canon.

1495 Act 11 Henry VII c. 24 §1 in Statutes of Realm (1816) II. 588 In the same atteynte there shalbe awarded ageynst the petite Jurie the party and the graund Jury som[ons] and resom[ons] and distres infynyte.

1531–2 Act 23 Hen. VIII c. 3 §1.

1641 Termes de la Ley 125 Distresse..is divided first into finite and infinite, finite is that which is limited by Law, how often it shall bee made to bring the party to tryall of the action, as once or twice. Distresse infinite is without limitation untill the party comes, as against a Jurie that refuseth to appeare upon certificate of assise.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. 231 A distress..that has no bounds with regard to it's quantity, and may be repeated from time to time, until the stubbornness of the party is conquered, is called a distress infinite.

1882 Scriven's Copyholds (ed. 6) vi. §2. 227 The proper remedy for neglect of suit of court, as well as for refusal to do fealty, was a distress infinite of the beasts or other personal property of the defaulter.

1871 H. J. Roby Gram. Lat. Lang. ii. xvi. 183 The forms of the verb proper are often called collectively the Finite Verb; the verbal nouns above named are sometimes called the Infinite Verb.

1871 B. H. Kennedy Public School Lat. Gram. §35 The forms of the Verb Infinite are not limited by Mood and Person. It comprises..(1) The Infinitive, a Verbal Substantive: as, amare, to love..(2) Participles, which are Verbal Adjectives.

a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1860) III. xiv. 253 Aristotle denominated the negative terms, such as non B, non homo, non albus, etc., ὀνόματα ἀόριστα, literally indefinite nouns. Boethius, however unhappily translated Aristotle's Greek term..ἀόριστος by the Latin infinitus... The Schoolmen..thus called the ὀνόματα ἀόριστα..nomina infinita: and the non they styled the particula infinitans.

1526 W. Bonde Rosary sig. Aii^v Infinite riche in glory.

1642 D. Rogers Naaman 616 Are there not infinite many passages in thy life?

1658 W. Sanderson Graphice 60 Nature is so infinite various in the Colours and shadows of the face.

1673 J. Dryden Marriage a-la-Mode i. i. 6 I set a good face upon the matter, and am infinite fond of her before company.

1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. ii. 15 Two infinites cannot be abidden, no nor imagined together,..therefore like as there must needes be one Infinite, so must there be but only one.

a1711 T. Ken Hymnarium 1 in Wks. (1721) II. No Rival Infinite could share thy Throne, There no more Infinites can be but one.

1712 tr. H. More Scholia Antidote Atheism 151 in H. More Coll. Philos. Writings (ed. 4) Since every part of an Infinite is infinite, there may be supposed something more infinite than an Infinite.

1830 J. F. W. Herschel Prelim. Disc. Study Nat. Philos. §106 The telescope and the microscope laid open the infinite in both directions.

1847 J. Martineau Endeavours Christian Life II. xvii. 275 The Presence-chamber of the Infinite.

1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics (1860) I. 44 Hindoo mysticism..aims at ultimate absorption in the Infinite.

a1631 J. Donne Elegy to Lady Bedford in Poems (1633) 299 Diffus'd, and spread in infinite.

1651 J. Saint-Amard tr. F. Micanzio Life Father Paul sig. L^v Mischiefes have their terminations, but feares go in infinite.

1651 Bp. J. Taylor XXVIII Serm. vii. 87 And so on to infinite.

1671 T. Hobbes Consid. Wallis his Answer 2 in 3 Papers This arguing of Infinites is but the ambition of School-boyes.

1677 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Oxford-shire 288 Dr. John Wallis..first demonstrated the impossibility of squaring the Circle, Arithmetically,..having apply'd his method of Infinites in order thereunto.

1693 E. Halley in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 16 556 That among themselves each of those Species of Infinites are in given Proportions, is what I now intend to make plain.

1706 W. Jones Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 205 Of Infinites 'tis hence plain, that some are equal, others unequal.

1710 G. Berkeley Treat. Princ. Human Knowl. §130 Of late the speculations about Infinites have..grown to such strange notions, as have occasioned no small scruples and disputes among the geometers.

1831 D. Brewster Life I. Newton xvi. 288 He then proceeds to correct an error of Dr Bentley's in supposing that all infinites are equal.

1858 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (1869) II. iv. 190 The geometry of infinites applied to the ordinates and tangents of curves.

1864 Plücker New Geom. of Space in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) (1865) 727 The number of rays constituting a configuration, a congruency, a complex and space, are infinites of first, second, third, and fourth order.

1864 Reader 21 May 657 The symbol ¹/ ₀, the infinite of common algebra, represents an extreme of infinite.

1656 S. Hunton Golden Law 72 Suppose that any King..should..Solomon-like, infinite it in Wives and Concubines.

1868 H. Bushnell Serm. Living Subj. 105 They are creatures to be somehow infinited, to be eternized in their continuance of good.

1868 Contemp. Rev. 8 617 Those very elements of diversity by which..spirit in its last individual forms infinites and unifies the manifold.