Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PER-PET'U-AL, a. [Fr. perpetuel; L. perpetuus, from perpes, perpetis; per and pes, from a root signifying to pass.]

1. Never ceasing; continuing forever in future tame; destined to be eternal; as, a perpetual covenant; a perpetual statute. [Literally true with respect to the decrees of the Supreme Being.]
2. Continuing or continued without intermission; uninterrupted; as, a perpetual stream; the perpetual action of the heart and arteries.
3. Permanent; fixed; not temporary; as, a perpetual law or edict; perpetual love or amity; perpetual incense. – Exod. xxx.
4. Everlasting; endless. Destructions are come to a perpetual end. – Ps. ix.
5. During the legal dispensation. – Ex. xxix. Perpetual curacy, is where all the tithes are appropriated and no vicarage is endowed. – Blackstone. Perpetual motion, motion that generates a power of continuing itself forever or indefinitely, by means of mechanism or some application of the force of gravity, not yet discovered, and probably impossible. Perpetual screw, a screw that acts against the teeth of a wheel and continues its action without end. – Wilkins.