gradatev.
/ɡrəˈdeɪt/, U.S. /ˈɡreɪˌdeɪt/ 1. With reference to colour:absolute.1857 J. Ruskin Elements Drawing i. 20 If you cannot gradate well with pure black lines, you will never gradate well with pale ones.1874 R. St. J. Tyrwhitt Our Sketching Club 70 Now gradate over the gray to nothing with a little vermillion and yellow ochre.
a. intransitive. To pass by imperceptible grades from one tone or shade to another; to shade off. Const. into.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > change of colour > change colour [verb (intransitive)] > merge gradate
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shadow1839
shade1841
1753 W. Hogarth Anal. Beauty xii. 96 Retiring shades, which gradate or go off by degrees.
1775 C. Davy & F. Davy tr. M.-T. Bourrit Relation of Journey to Glaciers Savoy 113 The deeper colour of a single neighbouring mountain, which gradated from top to bottom.
1823 Examiner 186/1 The light..admirably gradates into and contrasts the solemn dark on the shore.
b. transitive. To cause so to pass by imperceptible grades.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > painting > art of colouring > colour [verb (transitive)] > pass gradually from one to another
ennew1430
gradate1853
grade1871
1853 J. Ruskin Stones of Venice III. ii. 46 Let the reader take the two extreme tints, and carefully gradate the one into the other.
1857 J. Ruskin Elements Drawing iii. 219 It is not enough..that colour should be gradated by being made merely paler or darker at one place than another.
2. transitive. To arrange in steps or grades (material or immaterial). ? Only in passive. Const. into. Also with off.
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the world > space > shape > other specific shapes > make into other specific shape [verb (transitive)] > arrange in steps or terrace
bench1615
gradate1869
the world > relative properties > order > put in (proper) order [verb (transitive)] > reduce to order > arrange in gradations
graduate1610
gradate1869
scale1934
1869 A. W. Ward tr. E. Curtius Hist. Greece II. iii. i. 254 The surrounding heights are gradated off in artificial terraces up to their summit.
1885 W. Black White Heather in Longman's Mag. 6 126 In the old country, where society is gradated into ranks.
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3. Chemistry (? U.S. only.) ‘To bring to a certain strength or grade of concentration; as, to gradate a saline solution’ (Webster 1897); ‘to concentrate as by evaporation’ (Funk's Stand. Dict.). Cf. graduate adj. and n., graduation n., graduator n.
Derivatives
graˈdated adj.
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1846 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters II. 44 Compare the gradated colours of the rainbow with the stripes of a target.
1863 E. V. Neale Analogy Thought & Nature 179 These currents would produce, in all substances possessing a ‘gradated’ structure, secondary currents circulating round them.
1886 Spectator 18 Dec. 1711 Glowing with rich and carefully gradated colour.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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