a. and sb. Also 6–7 verticall. [a. F. vertical (1545, = Sp., Pg. vertical, It. verticale), or ad. late L. verticālis (Quicherat), f. vertic-, stem of vertex VERTEX.]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to, placed or situated at, passing through, the vertex or zenith; occupying a position in the heavens directly overhead or above a given place or point.
† a. Vertical point, = VERTEX 2. Also fig., the culminating or highest point, the point of greatest development or perfection (freq. in the 17th c.). Obs.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 16. Leuell with th’ earth, and his verticall point, in the forsaid Æquinoctial.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., ix. (1906), 61. Latitude is the distance of the Meridian, betweene the verticall point (or pole of the Horizon) and the Æquinoctiall.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, I. viii. 15. Those that live further North are of stronger body,… because their vertigal [sic] paint being far removed from the Suns course, they more abound in cold and moisture.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 368. Let XBL be a Vertical Circle, X the Zenith, (for the Vertical point may be consider’d as mov’d in regard of the Ecliptic unmov’d).
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Point, The Zenith and Nadir are the Vertical Points.
fig. 1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xii. 103. Such successe, as well declared it was Gods will…, that the English name should now be brought to the verticall poynt thereof without any thing being able to resist it.
1626. T. H[awkins], trans. Caussin’s Holy Court, 363. Saint Ireneus … calleth Charity … the top, and verticall point of all vertues, guifts, and fauours of God.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. III., Wks. (1711), 43. This family seemed now in the zenith and vertical point of its greatness.
a. 1671. Ld. Fairfax, Mem. (1699), 103. Here was the vertical point on which the army’s honour and reputation turned into reproach and scandal.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 284. Both Christianity and their Country are past their Vertical Point, and are upon their Declension.
b. Vertical circle, an azimuth-circle (see AZIMUTH 1).
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 22. Here you se A.E.C. represent the verticall point, B.D. the poles of the world, by which and A. (being the vertical circle) is the meridian circle A B. C.D. delineated.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xix. (1597), 154 b. Ther is another great circle called the circle Verticall, which passeth right over our heades through our Zenith.
1594. J. Davis, Seamen’s Secr., II. (1607), 8. Circles of Azumuths, or verticall circles, are quarters of great circles, concurring together in the Zenith.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VI. iii. 112. Measure the extent CM on the Vertical-Circle, and apply it to the Line of Signs.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Azimuths or Vertical Circles, are great Circles intersecting each other in the Zenith and Nadir,… and cutting the Horizon at Right Angles.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 348. Let ZBL be a Vertical Circle, in which Z is the Zenith.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 24. The vertical circle which passes through the east and west points of the horizon is termed the Prime Vertical.
1860. Olmstead, Mech. Heavens, 23. But if the point is above the horizon, then its azimuth is estimated by passing a vertical circle through it [etc.].
c. Of the sun, stars, etc., or in general use.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., IV. xxvi. (1597), 228. As many stars as passe right vnder your Zenith are said to bee verticall.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. x. (1635), 220. To them the Sunne is twice in the yeere verticall, that is directly ouer their heads.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 43. The extream heat of the Sun, which when vertical usually raises vapors in abundance.
1679. Moxon, Math. Dict., s.v. Vertex, The Equator is said to be Vertical to them who have a continual Equinox; because, it constantly passes by the Vertex of the Place.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 271. The Globe must be turn’d about till the first of the two Places becomes Vertical, (which it will be, when it arrives at the Meridian of the Globe).
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 21. He knew that the sun, at the summer solstice, was vertical to the inhabitants of Syene.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 53. We find the services of the winds almost equally important in meliorating the fervour of a vertical sun.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xvii. Becalmed under a vertical sun in the midst of the wide ocean.
1880. Geikie, Phys. Geog., I. ii. 16. At each equinox the sun appears vertical over the equator.
fig. 1593. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 266. Come all the daintiest dainties of this toungue, and doe homage to your Verticall Starre.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. ii. § 96 (1740), 82. It fell out in a Conjuncture so vertical, that without it both Nations might have plunged into a mischievous Condition of Civil War.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, iv. The strong vertical light of Homer’s poetry is blazing so full upon the people and things of the Iliad.
† d. fig. Pertaining to, characteristic of, or denoting the period or position of greatest eminence or perfection; at one’s highest point or position. Cf. vertical point (a. fig. above). Obs.
1641. Ld. J. Digby, Sp. in Ho. Com., 19 Jan., 25. In voting this bill, we shall contribute … to the perpetuating our Sun, our Soveraigne, in his vesticall [sic], in his noone-day lustre.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IV. 175. But now in the time of the aforesaid William Heyworth, the Cathedral of Litchfield was in the verticall height thereof. Ibid. (1655), Hist. Camb. (1840), 186. As Cambridge was his vertical place, wherein he was in height of honour.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 38. Though Greg. and his virtuoso’s seem to themselves to be vertical and cock-a-hoop.
2. Vertical angie: a. An opposite angle (see OPPOSITE a. 1 and quot. 1704). b. The angle opposite the base of a triangle or polygon.
1571. Digges, Pantom., I. vi. C iij. Two right lines crossing one another, make the contrary or verticall angles equall.
1660. Barrow, Euclid, I. xv. Schol., The vertical (or opposite) angles.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v. Angles, Opposite or vertical Angles, as, 1. Those that are made by two Right Lines crossing each other, and which touch only in their Angular Point.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 910/2. The tangent of half the vertical angle. Ibid. The line CF bisecting the vertical angle.
1798. Hutton, Course Math. (1806), I. 368. In a Triangle, having given the two Sides about the Vertical Angle.
1862. Todhunter, Euclid, I. 15. If two straight lines cut one another, the vertical or opposite angles shall be equal.
3. Placed or extending at right angles to the plane of the horizon; perpendicular; upright.
a. Geom. Of a straight line or plane surface.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Line Vertical, in Perspective, is the common Section of the Vertical Plane and of the Draught. Ibid., s.v. Plane, Vertical Plane, in Opticks and Perspective, is a Plain Surface which passeth along the Principal Ray, and consequently thro’ the Eye, and is perpendicular to the Geometrical Plane.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 436. Therefore there is given the Angle Llλ the difference or sum of them, and the Vertical to it Flf.
1812–6. Playfair, Nat. Phil. (1819), I. 11. A plane at any place perpendicular to the line in which bodies gravitate, is called a horizontal plane; and any plane passing through that line is called a vertical plane.
1851. S. P. Woodward, Mollusca, I. 62. Their shell is usually straight, or coiled in a vertical plane.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), I. iv. 111. When the short diagonal of the prism was vertical.
b. In general use.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Windmil, That is reputed the best made with vertical Sails, like the ordinary Windmils.
1756. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 10. Vertical rainbows in the sky are not uncommon, whereas the horizontal are very extraordinary.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 187. In some coal fields one part of a stratum is inclined, and the other part vertical.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxxi. 260. Some phenomena both of vertical and lateral mirage.
1855. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, vi. 326. Under the vertical rays of the never clouded sun.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 940. The adaptation of the Virginian Creeper to climbing up vertical walls.
Comb. 1857. T. Moore, Handbk. Brit. Ferns (ed. 3), 10. The vertical-ringed spore-cases, when mature, split suddenly with a transverse fissure.
c. With abstract nouns, esp. of movement or direction.
1794. [see VERTICITY 1].
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., ix. § 6. The compound motion of the lower jaw, half lateral, and half vertical.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 31. Plates of rock, separated by seams which have generally a vertical direction.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 410. Four-fifths of the town of Cumana was shaken down by a vertical shock.
1859. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., I. Protozoa, Introd. p. xxix. The relations of animals to the elements in which they live…. Their vertical (bathymetrical) distribution.
1872. Darwin, Emotions, xi. 273. We give a vertical nod of approval … when we approve of their conduct.
Comb. 1850. Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 48. It would fail for a balance or vertical-force-magnetometer.
d. Of mechanical appliances or structures. Also in technical use applied to machines that operate vertically.
Numerous other examples are given in Knight, Dict. Mech. (1875 and 1884).
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 141. The comparative power of horizontal and vertical windmills.
1859. Handbk. Turning, 79. The vertical, or universal cutter.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2708/1. Vertical Boring-machine, a drill or boring-machine having a vertical spindle. Ibid., Vertical Planing-machine.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Voc., 151. Vertical engine, an upright engine, as distinct from a ‘horizontal one.’
e. Special collocations, as vertical bond, care-grinder, dial (cf. B. 3), escapement, fire, watch, etc.
A number of other scientific or special terms are defined in recent encyclopædic Dicts.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., 1131. *Vertical bond is a course of bricks, stone, or other materials, tending to support or strengthen the building vertically.
1859. Slang Dict., 114. *Vertical-care-grinder, the treadmill.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VII. vi. 11. The Vertical Dial, whose Plane lieth in the Horizon, for which cause many call it the Horizontal Dial.
1728. [see B. 3 a].
1877. Encycl. Brit., VII. 155/1. Vertical dials, when on a vertical plane facing one of the cardinal points.
1850. Denison, Treatise Clock & Watch-making, 33. The escapement was exactly the same as that of a bottle-jack, or the commonest kind of watch, and is called a *vertical escapement.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 248. Vertical Escapement … [is] an escapement in which the pallet axis or the balance staff is set at right angles to the axis of the escape wheel.
1842. Burn, Nav. & Mil. Techn. Dict., I. s.v. Feu, Feu courbe ou vertical, curved or *vertical fire, generally from mortars laid at an angle of not less than 15°.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 712. Vertical fire, in artillery, that directed upward at such an angle as that it will fall vertically, or nearly so, to its destination.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 302/2. We shall now give a description of a common *vertical watch.
1850. Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 145. The old vertical watch, so called because the scape-wheel stands vertically when the other wheels are horizontal.
4. Having a position at right angles to the plane of the axis, body or supporting surface; pointing or situated directly upwards or downwards.
a. Bot. Of a leaf or other part.
Martyn, Lang. Bot. (1793) also gives vertical leaf (after Linnæus’s folium verticale) as = obverse leaf, but objects to the use of the term.
1776. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Explan. Terms 382. Vertical, Leaves so situated that the Base is perpendicular to the Apex.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1212/1.
1879. A. Gray, Struct Bot., iii. § 4 (ed. 6), 108. Vertical leaves, those with blades of the ordinary kind, but presenting their edges instead of their faces to the earth and sky, or when erect with one edge directed to the stern and the other away from it.
b. Zool., esp. of certain fins of fishes.
1834. H. M’Murtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 203. A vertical caudal, as in Gymnetrus, but shorter.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 40. The vertical fins are situated in the median dorsal line, from the head to the extremity of the tail.
5. Zool., Anat., etc. Of or pertaining to, situated on, affecting, the vertex of the head.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. 315. Stemmata: Vertical, when they are placed in the Vertex.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Vertical eyes of a fish. Ibid., The vertical crest of some birds is horizontal when not erected.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 546. Meningitis, whether vertical or posterior-basic, is caused by an invasion of micro-organisms.
† 6. Belonging to giddiness. Obs.–0
1623. Cockeram.
B. sb. [Ellipt. use of the adj.]
† 1. The vertical point; the vertex or zenith. In quots. fig. Obs.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xv. § 119. King Henries glory thus ascended to the highest verticall in France.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., IV. vi. (1821), 104. A naked intuition of eternal truth which is always the same, which never rises nor sets, but always stands still in its vertical, and fills the whole horizon of the soul with a mild and gentle light.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 100. Now she was in the Verticall of her favour, wherein hence-forward she began to decline.
2. A vertical circle, line, or plane.
Prime vertical: see PRIME a. 9 b.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VII. x. 15. If you have not time until the sun cometh unto the Azimuth of the Wall, or the Vertical of it, which cutteth the Pole thereof. Ibid. The Sun is neerer to the Meridian, than to the Vertical of the Plane.
1674. Moxon, Tutor Astron., V. Prob. iv. (ed. 3), 154. You may reduce all Verticals into Horizontals [in dialling].
1774. M. Mackenzie, Maritime Surv., 52. This Angle PZs … is therefore equal to the horizontal Distance of the Vertical of the two Stars from the Meridian.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., vii. 55. The difference of the latitudes being the angle contained between the verticals at the extremities of the arc.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 449. Every portion of matter left to itself … falls in the direction of the vertical of the place on which it falls.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., IV. VI. 526. In an inclined fault the level of the selected stratum is protracted across the fissure until a vertical from it will reach the level of the same bed.
b. Math. A vertical angle (see A. 2).
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Angle, The Measure of an Angle without the Centre, is half of the Arches HI and LM, whereon it and its Vertical K do stand.
c. The vertical, the vertical line or position; the perpendicular.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., vii. 56. Local attractions, which cause the plumb-line to deviate from the vertical. Ibid. (1840), xxix. (ed. 5), 335. The dip [of the needle] was 89°59′, which was within one minute of the vertical.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 849. A line drawn tangentially to the apical portion will very nearly coincide with the vertical. Ibid. In consequence of the continuing curvature … the now erect apical portion becomes bent over out of the vertical.
3. A vertical dial (see A. 3 e).
In contrast to later use, Sturmy gives the name of vertical to the horizontal dial.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., Aaaa 2. I will name the Dials,… viz. Eight Verticals and Decliners.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Vertical Dial, is a Sun-Dial, drawn on the Plane of a Vertical Circle; or perpendicular to the Horizon…. These are particularly call’d … East,… West,… South, and … North Verticals, when opposed to one, or other of these Cardinal Points of the Horizon.
4. (See quot.)
1902. Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 180. In the slang of the rock garden the plants living … on upright rocks are called ‘verticals.’
Hence Verticalness. rare–0.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Verticalness, the being right over one’s Head. [Hence in later Dicts.]
