a. Also sphæroidal. [f. SPHEROID sb. + -AL. So F. sphéroidal, Sp. and Pg. esferoidal.]

1

  1.  Of form, figure, etc.: Characteristic of a spheroid; approximately spherical.

2

1781.  Phil. Trans., LXXI. 503. Allowing for the spheroidal figure of the earth.

3

1802.  Playfair, Illustr. Huttonian The., 493. To account for its assuming the spheroidal figure.

4

1845.  Todd & Bowman, Phys. Anat., I. 138. The spheroidal form of the cranium.

5

1890.  Science-Gossip, XXVI. 49/1. While the heavier portions … were being drawn together so as to acquire a spheroidal contour.

6

  b.  Spheroidal condition or state: (see quots. 1860 and 1871).

7

1855.  Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sci., Elem. Chem., 190. If it be projected upon a capsule of platinum, maintained at a red heat, the salt … will assume the spheroidal condition.

8

1860.  Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 5), III. 732. Spheroidal state, the name given by Boutigny to the condition assumed by water when projected into red hot vessels.

9

1871.  B. Stewart, Heat (ed. 2), § 110. Vaporization in the Spheroidal Condition, where a liquid evaporates slowly although in apparent contact with a very hot substance.

10

  2.  Having the form of a spheroid.

11

1798.  Hutton, Course Math. (1807), II. 348. The spheroidal hollow in the bottom of the bore.

12

1822.  J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 77. A stony polypifer, fixed, in a simple hemisphærical or sphæroidal mass.

13

1867.  J. Hogg, Microsc., II. i. 271. A splitting of the endochrome into six or eight masses, which become spheroidal sporules.

14

1878.  Newcomb, Pop. Astron., IV. iii. 998. A constant flattening of the spheroidal atmosphere.

15

  Comb.  1891.  Moullin, Surg., 138. Spheroidal-celled Cancer … occurs in the breast,… nose, and palate.

16

  b.  In special applications (see quots.).

17

1805–17.  R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 209. Spheroidal, when its surface consists of forty-eight convex faces, as in the diamond.

18

1842.  Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Spheroidal Bracketing, that formed to receive the plastering of a spheroid.

19

1881.  Mivart, Cat, 26. Or they may be rounded, forming spheroidal epithelium.

20

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 977. Spheroidal carcinoma is rare in the large intestine.

21

  3.  Dealing with the properties of spheroids.

22

1876–7.  Cayley, Math. Papers (1896), IX. 197. The fundamental formula of Spheroidal Trigonometry are those which belong to a right-angled triangle.

23

  Hence Spheroidally adv., after a spheroidal manner; so as to form spheroids.

24

1888.  Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., XLIV. 450. The great mass of Mynydd-y-Rhiw … is largely built up of spheroidally jointed rock.

25