arch. [ad. L. arietātiōnem, n. of action f. arietāre: see prec.]
1. The action of butting like a ram; hence, the striking with a battering-ram or similar instrument.
1625. Bacon, Ess. (Arb.), 575. The Strength of the Percussion; wherein likewise Ordnance doe exceed all Arietations.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, IV. xxiv. (1840), 222. Before Ordinance was found out, ships were both gunnes and bullets themselves, and furiously ranne one against another. They began with this arietation.
2. transf. and fig. Battering, concussion, clashing.
1625. Jackson, Creed, V. xiii. Wks. IV. 100. Examining the certainty of truth … by a kind of arietation, a trial which floating conceits … cannot abide.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., vii. 36. Such tumultuary motions, cross thwartings, and arietations of other particles.
1797. Taylor, in Month. Rev., XXIV. 534. Props of our old constitution against the arietations of democracy.
