Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
rectilinear .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Straight; consisting of a straight line or lines; bounded by straight lines
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Alternative form of
rectilinear .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective characterized by a straight line or lines
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It must, however, be remembered that rays have no physical existence, for it is the waves that are propagated, and not the ray, which simply indicates the direction that the light takes, this truth being known as the rectilineal propagation of light.
Aether and Gravitation William George Hooper
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Under the centripetal force, the base of the projectile tended toward the moon; but the centrifugal still prevailed; and it was probable that its rectilineal course would be changed to a curve of some sort, the nature of which they could not at present determine.
Round the Moon 2003
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It is the simplest of all curves, and the standard or measure of curvature, -- vastly more simple in its laws than any rectilineal figure, and therefore more beautiful than any simple figure of that kind.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 30, April, 1860 Various
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Another problem solved by the Pythagoreans was that of drawing a rectilineal figure which shall be equal in area to one given rectilineal figure and similar to another.
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If the outline be rectilineal, simplicity of law produces symmetry, and variety of result can be attained only at the expense of simplicity in the law.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 30, April, 1860 Various
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Ah! you're found out, you _rectilineal antecedent_, and _equiangular_ old hag!
Irish Wit and Humor Anecdote Biography of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell Anonymous
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I. 44, 45, where it is shown how to apply to a given straight line as base a parallelogram with one angle equal to a given angle and equal in area to any given rectilineal figure; this construction is the geometrical equivalent of arithmetical
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The first law of motion is, that everything preserves a state of rest, or of uniform rectilineal (that is, straight, motion), unless affected by some moving force.
The Book of Sports: Containing Out-door Sports, Amusements and Recreations, Including Gymnastics, Gardening & Carpentering William Martin
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In the circumference of the circle, then, no two of the points equidistant from the centre can touch each other; and the circumference must be made up of infinite all rectilineal sides joining these points.
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In the religion of the once-born the world is a sort of rectilineal or one-storied affair, whose accounts are kept in one denomination, whose parts have just the values which naturally they appear to have, and of which a simple algebraic sum of pluses and minuses will give the total worth.
Introduction to the Science of Sociology Robert Ezra Park 1926
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