centripetallyadv.

1785 T. Dewell Philos. Physic (ed. 2) p. xxii Æther. Pure, uncombined phlogiston, the universal, diffused, inquiescent, fluid medium, which forms different degrees of density, heat and action, at the different points of the sphere which it fills, in which its lines must necessarily move, centripetally or centrifugally.

1830 Augusta (Georgia) Chron. 11 Sept. 2/2 These interests tend centripetally to its Court-House Town, which thus becomes the principal seat of discussion of county measures.

1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 362 The development..begins at the periphery of the ring, and in general proceeds centripetally.

1931 Motor Boating Feb. 272/2 The potter pressed his hands delicately against the outside wall of the cylinder. It flowed centripetally upon itself and the cylinder was covered over.

1986 W. L. MacDonald Archit. Rom. Empire II. ii. 29 Towns gained in cohesion and coherence through their armatures, which drew activity to themselves centripetally as they passed through different quarters and wards.

2005 M. S. Lee Slavery, Philos., & Amer. Lit. v. 165 The intersections of philosophy and the literature of slavery cannot be centripetally structured around a single writer.