Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GRADE'LY, adv.

Decently; orderly. [Local.]

GRA'DI-ENT, a. [L. gradiens, gradior.]

Moving by steps; walking; as, gradient automata. Wilkins.

GRAD'ING, ppr.

Reducing to a proper degree of ascent.

GRAD'U-AL, a. [Fr. graduel, from grade.]

1. Proceeding by steps or degrees; advancing step by step; passing from one step to another; regular and slow; as, a gradual increase of knowledge; a gradual increase of light in the morning is favorable to the eyes.
2. Proceeding by degrees in a descending line or progress; as, a gradual decline.

GRAD'U-AL, n.

1. An order of steps. Dryden.
2. A grail; an ancient book of hymns and prayers. Chalmers.

GRAD-U-AL'I-TY, n.

Regular progression. [Not used.] Brown.

GRAD'UAL-LY, adv.

1. By degrees; step by step; regularly; slowly. At evening the light vanishes gradually.
2. In degree. [Not used.] Human reason doth not only gradually, but specifically differ from the fantastic reason of brutes. Grew.

GRAD'U-ATE, n.

One who has received a degree in a college or university, or from some professional incorporated society.

GRAD'U-ATE, v.i.

1. To receive a degree from a college or university.
2. To pass by degrees; to change gradually. Sandstone which graduates into gneiss. Carnelian sometimes graduates into quartz. Kirwan

GRAD'U-ATE, v.t. [It. graduare; Sp. graduar; Fr. graduer; from L. gradus, a degree.]

1. To honor with a degree or diploma, in a college or university; to confer a degree on; as, to graduate a master of arts. Carew. Wotton.
2. To mark with degrees, regular intervals, or divisions; as, to graduate a thermometer.
3. To form shades or nice differences.
4. To raise to a higher place in the scale of metals. Boyle.
5. To advance by degrees; to improve. Dyers advance and graduate their colors with salts. Brown.
6. To temper; to prepare. Diseases originating in the atmosphere act exclusively on bodies graduated to receive their impressions. Med. Repos.
7. To mark degrees or differences of any kind; as, to graduate punishment. Duponceau.
8. In chimistry, to bring fluids to a certain degree of consistency.

GRAD'U-A-TED, pp.

1. Honored with a degree or diploma from some learned society or college.
2. Marked with degrees or regular intervals; tempered.

GRAD'U-ATE-SHIP, n.

The state of a graduate. Milton

GRAD'U-A-TING, ppr.

Honoring with a degree; marking with degrees.

GRAD-U-A'TION, n.

1. Regular progression by succession of degrees.
2. Improvement; exaltation of qualities. Brown.
3. The act of conferring or receiving academical degrees. Charter of Dartmouth College.
4. The act of marking with degrees.
5. The process of bringing a liquid to a certain consistence by evaporation. Parke.

GRAD'U-A-TOR, n.

An instrument for dividing any line, right or curve, into equal parts. Journ. of Science.

GRAFF, n. [See Grave.]

A ditch or moat. Clarendon.

GRAFF, n. [for Graft. Obs.]

GRAFT, n. [Fr. greffe; Arm. id; Ir. grafchur; D. griffel; from the root of grave, engrave, Gr. γραφω, L. scribo, the sense of which is to scrape or to dig. In Scot. graif, signifies to bury, to inter. The sense of graft is that which is inserted. See Grave.]

A small shoot or cion of a tree, inserted in another tree as the stock which is to support and nourish it. These unite and become one tree, but the graft determines the kind of fruit.

GRAFT, v.i.

To practice the insertion of foreign cions on a stock.

GRAFT, v.t. [Fr. greffer.]

1. To insert a cion or shoot, or a small cutting of it, into another tree. Dryden.
2. To propagate by insertion or inoculation. Dryden.
3. To insert in a body to which it did not originally belong. Rom. xi. 17.
4. To impregnate with a foreign branch. Shak.
5. To join one thing to another so as to receive support from it. And graft my love immortal on thy fame. Pope.

GRAFT'ED, pp.

Inserted on a foreign stock.

GRAFT'ER, n.

One who inserts cions on foreign stocks, or propagates fruit by ingrafting.

GRAFT'-ING, ppr.

Inserting cions on different stocks. Note. The true original orthography of this word is graff; but graft has superseded the original word, as it has in the compound ingraft.

GRAIL, n. [L. graduale.]

A book of offices in the Romish church. Warton.

GRAIL, n. [Fr. grêle, hail.]

Small articles of any kind. Spenser.