Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-TIN'U-AL, a. [Fr. continuel; L. continuus. See Continue.]

1. Proceeding without interruption or cessation; unceasing; not intermitting; used in reference to time. He that hath a merry heart hath a continual feast. – Prov. xv. I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart. – Rom. ix.
2. Very frequent; often repeated; as, the charitable man a continual applications for alms.
3. Continual fever, or continued fever, a fever that abates, but never entirely intermits, till it comes to a crisis; thus distinguished from remitting and intermitting fever.
4. Continual claim, in law, a claim that is made from time to time within every year or day, to land or other estate, the possession of which can not be obtained without hazard. – Cowell.
5. Perpetual.