capacityn.

1481 W. Caxton tr. Myrrour of Worlde iii. xx. 179 The capacyte and gretnes of heuene.

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. i. f. 2 Hauens, of capacitie to harborowe greate nauies.

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. v. f. 26 A potte of no bygger capacitie then to houlde them only.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) iv. ix. 32 Had our great Pallace the capacity To Campe this hoast, we all would sup together, And drinke Carowses to the next dayes Fate.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 228 There is a certain degree of capacity in the greatest vessel, and when tis full, if you pour in still, it must run out.

1578 Bk. Christian Prayers in Private Prayers (1851) 513 That I may so drink of thee, according to my capacity, as I may live for ever.

1631 Bp. J. Hall Occas. Medit. (ed. 2) (2nd state) §c All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver.

1846 T. De Quincey Notes on Gilfillan's Gallery Lit. Portraits in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 250/2 Men of genius have a larger capacity of happiness.

1793 T. Beddoes Observ. Nature & Cure Calculus 233 The great capacity of the arterial blood for heat.

1863 R. S. Culley Handbk. Pract. Telegr. (1871) 293 By the Capacity of a Condenser or Cable is meant its power to receive a charge.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 68 The hotter the air the greater its capacity for moisture.

1885 H. W. Watson & S. H. Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. 160 The capacity of a conductor in presence of any other conductors is the charge upon it required to raise it to unit potential, when all the other conductors have potential zero.

1777 T. Cavallo Compl. Treat. Electr. ii. i. 103 The celebrated Father Beccaria supposes that the action of rubbing increaseth the capacity of the Electric, i.e. renders that part of the electric, which is actually under the rubber capable of containing a greater quantity of electric fluid.

1903 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 5/1 The oscillatory circuit consists of a light wire cage, or ‘capacity’.

1906 A. F. Collins Man. Wireless Telegr. 209 Capacity cage, a cylindrical cage made of wire and placed at the top of the aerial wire to give it additional capacity.

1923 Daily Mail 3 Mar. 5 If you are particularly bothered by the proximity of wires it is worth while to try the effect of substituting a ‘capacity earth’ for the ordinary earth connection. The capacity is a wire or wires stretched out below and parallel to the aerial above but insulated from the earth.

1932 C. J. Smith Intermediate Physics xxxix. 507 The capacity of a sphere expressed in E.S.U. is numerically equal to its radius in centimetres.

1948 C. A. Coulson Electr. 43 If the potential difference between the plates is V, we define the capacity C by the formula C = Q/V.

1959 Chambers's Encycl. III. 826/1 The capacity of the charged conductor is..increased, i.e. it can hold a bigger charge for a given potential.

1885 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Sept. 813/2 The Nene does not discharge its waters so rapidly as it ought... Cut off the bends if you want a more efficient discharging capacity.

1892 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 41 96/2 The capacity of the present tunnel is sufficient to provide 100,000 horse-power applied to the turbines.

1900 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 48 835/1 The capacity of the larger canal would be over 20,000,000 tons a year.

1908 L. Merrick Man who understood Women 152 On the second Saturday night they played to ‘the capacity of the house’.

1919 Honey Pot July 5 Why there is hardly a theatre in the West End playing to capacity, week in week out.

1929 J. B. Priestley Good Compan. ii. iii. 328 We've got going in the town... Another week and it 'ud be capacity every night.

1929 J. B. Priestley Good Compan. ii. iii. 329 Turning money away, my dear; capacity to the roof, ol' man.

1937 D. Marlowe Coming, Sir! viii. 123 The other stows were filled to capacity.

1949 P. G. Wodehouse Mating Season xxii. 182 I..took my place among the standees at the back, noting dully that I should be playing to absolute capacity.

1958 Spectator 20 June 819/1 The bank-note paper mills worked to capacity throughout the year.

1931 Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 24 Jan. p. x/3 The production of bituminous coal [in U.S.] by ‘mechanical mining’ increased to 37·8 million tons in 1929, and this does not represent capacity, for short time and experimental work reduced the total below the maximum.

1940 Economist 8 June 999/1 The existing capacity must not only be worked to the limit, it must be expanded.

1959 Listener 12 Feb. 273/1 The British economy, so far from being inflationary, was suffering from a marked amount of excess capacity.

?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) ii. ix. sig. Nj You maye readely measure all equiangle figures, what capacitie..soeuer they bee of.

1571 T. Digges in L. Digges's Geom. Pract.: Pantometria ii. xxiv. sig. Eeiij Rules for the inuention of his capacitie superficiall and Solide.

1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall iii. 30 The present Urnes were not of one capacity, the largest containing above a gallon.

1699 L. Wafer New Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer. 98 Of the Capacity usually of a Gallon or more.

1818 M. Faraday Exper. Res. iv. 11 A glass globe of the..capacity..of about 140 cubic inches.

1866 J. F. W. Herschel Familiar Lect. Sci. Subj. 192 Our ordinary measures of length, weight and capacity.

1903 Motor 22 Apr. 237/2 Assuming that cylinder volume were taken as the standard..there would be no possibility of definitely ascertaining whether the two or four-stroke motor gave the better system, because the two-stroke would, on cylinder capacity, receive an enormous advantage.

1936 Motor 14 Oct. 514/1 The clever way in which eight cylinders, affording a total capacity of 4½ litres, have been arranged in so compact a space.

1946 Autocar Handbk. (ed. 19) i. 33 On January 1, 1947..the H.P. tax will be superseded, for cars first registered after that date, by a tax on the cylinder capacity of the engine; that is, the volume swept by the pistons.

1966 S. Black Man & Motor Cars xi. 170 A six-cylinder engine..need be no more uneconomic in petrol consumption than a four-cylinder engine, if the cylinder capacity is suitably adjusted.

1977 ‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon xi. 213 There were Hondas and Suzukis and Yamahas and even a few Norton Commandos, ranging in capacity from 400 to 750 c.c.

1984 Economist 7 Apr. 85/2 The figures on..the fuel consumption of cars were calculated assuming that..lower transmission ratios or larger engine capacities would be used to compensate for performance losses as octane numbers..were reduced.

1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver xxi. 125 Into a Square..or an Ovall Capacity; or else into a Circular plot.

1757 E. Burke Philos. Enq. Sublime & Beautiful iv. §9. 132 The whole capacity of the eye, vibrating in all its parts.

?1541 R. Copland Galen's Fourth Bk. Terapeutyke sig. Gij, in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens In diuiding y^e tronke..betwene the necke & the legges, is two great capacytees.

1594 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. II. 226 There are two capacities or holow places in the heart.

1662 J. Glanvill Lux Orientalis xiv. 164 Not..a meer void capacity, for there are no such chasms in nature.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Carcass, is an Iron Case, or hollow Capacity, about the bigness of a Bomb.

1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. xv. 284 Influence that floweth into the capacitie of our vnderstanding.

1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 204. ⁋3 I will fill the whole capacity of my soul with enjoyment.

a1649 King Charles I Wks. (1662) 295 He should be in a capacity of Honor.

1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. iii. 9 In what capacity these Jews came over, I finde not.

1710 A. Pope Corr. 10 May (1956) I. 87 I am..Dead in a Natural Capacity..Dead in a Poetical Capacity..and dead in a Civill Capacity.

1747 J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 266 The moon is..ready to act in the capacity of a guide.

1835 Buchanan Church Establishm. i. 7 Channels through which the mind of a people, in their collective capacity, can be expressed.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 364 The King, in his individual capacity, had very little to give.

1871 S. Smiles Character iv. 111 Storing his mind with facts for future use in his capacity of biographer.

1720 D. Waterland Vindic. Christ's Divinity (ed. 3) 102 Irenæus understood those Texts..in that Capacity.