a. [ad. L. centrāl-is central, f. centrum CENTRE: cf. F. central.]
1. Of or pertaining to the center or middle; situated in, proceeding from, containing or constituting the center.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. II. iii. Or else his inward life And Centrall rains do fairly him compell Within himself.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot. (1736), Introd. 1. Even such as hope to rise again, would not be content with central Interment.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 2. Leaving that central spot in the middle of the Flea-biting, where the probe entred.
a. 1720. J. Hughes, Ecstasy, Poems 1735, II. 304 (R.). Around the Central Sun, in circling Eddies roll’d.
1837. Emerson, Addr. Amer. Schol., Wks. (Bohn), II. 186. One central fire … flaming now out of the lips of Etna.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 15. 310. The quicker central flow [of a glacier].
b. Applied to a city, quarter, building, etc., situated in the heart of its district, where population is densest or trade busiest.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., Pref. 2. Roads to the less central Cities.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., VIII. 221. Palmyra, central in the desert.
1861. Swinhoe, N. China Camp., 7. The island [of Chusan] … from its central position, would form a good depôt for troops.
Mod. The point of departure was the Central Station, Manchester. To let, convenient business premises in a good central position.
c. Belonging to the party that holds a position midway between the two extremes (cf. CENTRE 15).
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., VI. 75. The ultra-faction among the Protestants became now powerless. The central multitude, whose belief was undefined, [etc.].
2. fig. Belonging to the center as the chief and most significant point or part, which lies at the heart, or dominates the rest; hence, chief, principal, leading, dominant.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, IV. xlvi. The most profound and centrall energie, The very selfnesse of the soul.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. vii. 60. The natural price … is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, I. 800. Every turn still brought me nearer to the central truth.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 423. Odysseus is the central figure of the one poem.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 438. Love is the very central command of Christianity.
b. Of a governing body, association, etc.: Controlling all branches of the organization from one common center; opposed to local.
1809. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., V. 3. I am very sensible of the value of the approbation of the Central Junta.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 313. In 1811 the different district societies were incorporated as members of a central association.
1863. Bright, Sp. Amer., 30 June. The continent would still be united under one central Government.
1888. Gladstone, in Spect., 562/1. To commence not with local but with central institutions.
3. Phys. Of or pertaining to a nerve-center; in Pathol. applied to affections of parts of the body caused by lesions or diseases of the brain or spinal cord, as distinguished from affections of the same parts produced by local disease or lesion.
1865. New Syd. Soc. Year-bk., 88 (title), On Central Paralysis.
1872. W. Aitken, Sci. & Pr. Med. (ed. 6), II. 360. Reflex symptoms may be present in central anæsthesia, but they are entirely absent in peripheral anæsthesia.
1875. Gamgee, trans. Hermann’s Physiol., xi. 467. The central end-organs of nerve-fibres are contained in certain structures, which are called ‘the central organs of the nervous system.’
1877. Foster, Physiol., iii. 75. A sensitive cell on the surface of the body connected by means of a sensory nerve with the internal automatic central nervous cell.
4. In various phrases:
Math., etc.: Central curve (conic), a curve having a center; central eclipse, an eclipse in which the centers of the sun and moon are in a line with the spectator; central force, a force attracting to or repelling from a center; so central orbit (see quot.); † central rule (see quot.); central section, a section passing through the center.
1684. T. Barker, Geometr. Key, 6. The central rule.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Central-Rule, is a rule found out … by … Mr. Tho. Baker … whereby he finds the Center of a Circle designed to cut the Parabola in as many Points as an Equation to be constructed hath real Roots.
1801. Hutton, Course Math. (1828), II. 224. The subject of central forces.
1846. J. Joyce, Sci. Dialog., xv. A central eclipse.
1860. Salmon, Conic Sect., x. (1879), 143. The ellipse and hyperbola are hence often classed together as central curves, while the parabola is called a non-central curve.
1865. P. T. Main, Introd. Plane Astron., i. (1879), 5. Every central section of a sphere is called a great circle.
1882. Minchin, Unipl. Kinemat., 63. Central Orbit … an orbit described by a moving point whose resultant acceleration is in every position directed to a fixed point or centre.
5. Central fire: applied attrib. to a cap or cartridge in which the fulminate occupies a central position, instead of being disposed around the periphery of the flanged capsule.
1881. Greener, Gun, 202. The employment of a central-fire cap. Ibid., 204. The central-fire cartridge.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 18 Jan., 5/1. Exploded by central-fire action.
