tertiate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To reduce by one third; especially, kill one third of (a group of people).
  2. To increase by half as much again; especially to increase the price in this way.
  3. To do or perform three times or for the third time.
  4. To divide into three parts, especially to divide into thirds.
  5. To examine, as the thickness of the metal at the muzzle of a gun; or, in general, to examine the thickness of, as ordnance, in order to ascertain its strength.
noun
  1. The third year of training in various Christian religious orders (especially the Jesuits).
  2. One who is in their tertiate training.
  3. The third classification of animals in some ranked taxonomic systems, such as that proposed by Linnaeus.
adj
  1. Having 2:3 proportion.
  2. Having three parts.

Pronunciation

tûrʹshĭāt /ˈtɜːʃɪeɪt/

Word forms

tertiate tertiates tertiating tertiated more tertiate most tertiate

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tertiāt-, the perfect passive participial stem of Latin tertiō, from tertius (“third”). By surface analysis, terti- + -ate.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.