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▪ I. metrical, a.1|ˈmɛtrɪkəl| [f. late L. metricus relating (1) to measuring, (2) to metre: see metric a.1 and -ical. Cf. OF. metrical.] I. 1. Pertaining or relating to metre or versification; consisting of or composed in metre; having the characteristics of metre. spec. applied to Old or Middle English verse.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) VI. 183 Of..the rewles of feete metricalle,..of dialog metricalle. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 173 She uttered sundry metricall and ryming speeches. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. iv. 186 Their Quantities, their Rests, their Ceasures metricall. 1774Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry v. (1840) I. 181 The old metrical romances. 1802J. Ritson (title) Ancient Engleish metrical romanceës. 1807S. Turner Hist. Anglo-Saxons (ed. 2) II. 294 This poem [sc. Beowulf] is certainly a metrical romance in the Anglo-Saxon language. 1810Scott Lady of L. ii. vi. note, Graham (which, for metrical reasons, is here spelt after the Scottish pronunciation). 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 73 note, The productions of Lord Thurlow indicate a considerable share of metrical energy. 1830B. Thorpe tr. Rask's Gram. Anglo-Saxon Tongue 150 The Anglo-Saxons..in many M.S.S., carefully separate the verse by metrical points. 1855Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 456, I have adopted a sort of simple, ballad tone, and tried to make my prose as metrical as possible. 1897Mod. Lang. Notes XII. 79 This regularity of arrangement holds only for the half line, the metrical unit. 1923G. Saintsbury Hist. Eng. Prosody (ed. 2) I. ii. i. 90 The metrical romances present by far the largest section..of earlier fourteenth-century verse-literature. 1930French & Hale M.E. Metrical Romances p. v, The metrical romances are the first large body of English fiction. 1946Trans. Philol. Soc. 1943–6 59 What neither Sievers nor any other writers..have ever pointed out, is that the ‘five types’ are language patterns not metrical patterns. 1953Speculum XXVIII. 449 The discovery of..the non-existence of metrical formulas in the poetry of lettered authors. 1963R. Quirk in Brown & Foote Early Eng. & Norse Stud. 159 Metrical units in variation. II. 2. Relating to, involving, used in, or determined by measurement. metrical geometry: see quot. 1897 (opposed to ‘descriptive geometry’).
1650J. Wybard Tactometria 6 These kinde of metricall lines (or linear numbers). 1690Leybourn Curs. Math. 192 All kind of Arithmetical and Metrical Operations. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 70 Its metrical extent, or its extent as compared with that of the body or with some of its parts. 1858Cayley in Math. Pap. (1889) II. 592 We are then in the region of pure descriptive geometry: we pass out of it into metrical geometry by fixing upon a conic of the figure as a standard of reference and calling it the Absolute. 1878Petrie in Jrnl. Anthrop. Inst. (1879) VIII. 111 As an illustration of the metrical character of earthworks, we may refer to the East Everley works in Wiltshire. 1885C. Leudesdorf Cremona's Proj. Geom. ix. 50 Most of the propositions in Euclid's Elements are metrical, and it is not easy to find among them an example of a purely descriptive theorem. 1897B. A. W. Russell Found. Geom. 149 Metrical Geometry..may be defined as the science which deals with the comparison and relations of spatial magnitudes. Hence ˈmetrically adv.1, with regard to metre; (translated) into metre.
1789Elegant Extracts, Poetry Pref. (1816) 7 Explaining every thing grammatically, historically, metrically, and critically. 1819Campbell Ess. Eng. Poetry ii. Specim. I. 113 The heroic measure of Chaucer will be found in general..to be metrically correct. 1855Neil Z. Boyd's Zion's Flowers Introd. 16 Metrically translated books of the Bible. ▪ II. metrical, a.2|ˈmɛtrɪkəl| [f. F. métrique metric a.2: see -ical.] 1. = metric a.2 (which is now more usual).
1797Monthly Mag. III. 209/1 The ensuing year; when the French republic will have immortalized the first years of its establishment, by the adoption of a Metrical System. 1816P. Kelly Metrol. Introd. 16 It was computed in France, that in three generations, their metrical system would be fully established. 1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. (1874) 444 Comparison of the Metrical with the Common Measures. 2. ‘Having the dimensions of a French meter; as metrical blocks’ (Webster 1847–54). b. Of lenses or their measurement: Pertaining to the system of which the unit is the ‘dioptric’, i.e. a focal length of one metre.
1879Bryant Pract. Surg. (ed. 3) I. 301 The trial glasses..are arranged according to what is known as the ‘metrical system’. Ibid., margin, Metrical lenses. |