a. and sb. [ad. L. termināl-is, f. termin-us end, boundary: see -AL. Cf. F. terminal (16th c. in Godef.).]
A. adj. † 1. Her. (See quots.) Obs.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., B j b. Ther be .ix. dyuisionis of cotarmures .v. perfite & .iiii. vnperfite. The .v. perfite be theys Termynall Collaterall Abstrakte Fixall and Bastard. Ibid. Termynall is calde in armys all the bretheren of right lyne hethir by fadre or by modre may bere the right heyris cotarmure with a differens calde Enbordyng.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 155. All these coates were called Terminall because that they were terminated or limited within their embordinges, as afore sayd.
2. Belonging to or placed at the boundary of a region, as a landmark; in quot. 1744, presiding over boundaries (cf. TERMINUS 2).
1744. Paterson, Comm. on Milton’s P. L., 218. There stood a Statue of him [Jupiter] in full Proportion, stretching out his Right Hand with a Pomegranate, the Emblem of his being the Terminal God, defending the Borders of that Nation.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xvi. III. 283. A terminal pillar set up by Crœsus at Kydrara.
b. Applied to a statue, bust, or figure terminating in and apparently springing from a pillar or pedestal; also to the pillar or pedestal itself; and often inexactly to a pedestal which narrows towards the base. See TERM sb. 15, TERMINUS 3.
1857. Birch, Anc. Pottery (1858), II. 283. Sometimes only his bust is seen, or he appears as a terminal statue.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-Bks., I. 177. Great urns and vases, terminal figures, temples.
3. Situated at or forming the end or extremity of something: chiefly in scientific use; spec. in Cryst. applied to the faces, edges, or angles of a crystal at the extremities of its longest axis; in Zool. and Anat. situated at or forming the (outer) end of a part or series of parts; in Bot. growing at the end of a stem, branch, or other part, as a bud, flower, or inflorescence, a style, etc. (opp. to lateral and axillary). Terminal moraine (Geol.), a moraine at the lower end of a glacier: see MORAINE.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 104. Terminal edges are formed by the junction of lateral and terminal planes.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. 308. Mouth…. Terminal … When the mouth terminates the head.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 448. Plantations … pruned … by the removal of Terminal Shoots, and Terminal Buds.
1833. J. Duncan, Beetles (Nat. Libr.), 217. Terminal lobe of the maxillæ ending in a tuft of fine hair.
1847. W. E. Steele, Field Bot., 132. The uppermost whorl terminal and capitate.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. viii. 264. The rocks and débris carried down by the glacier are finally deposited at the lower extremity, forming there a terminal moraine.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., x. 274. A prism with a six-sided terminal pyramid.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, 160. By a terminal pole is meant not only the last pole at each end of the line to which the wires are terminated, but also any pole at which the wires form an angle approaching to 90°.
1884. Hulme, Wild Fl., p. vi. Inflorescence terminal and axillary.
b. Situated at the end of a line of railway; forming, or belonging to, a railway terminus.
1878. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 68. The cost including two terminal stations and rolling stock, averaging £24,000 a mile.
1881. Times, 13 July, 6/3. In regard to terminal services the respondent [railway] company allowed a rebate.
1907. Daily Chron., 10 Sept., 4/6. When the Canadian Pacific Railway Company selected the spot for their western terminal port on the shores of the Pacific.
4. Occurring at the end of something (in time, or generally); forming the last member of a series or succession; closing, concluding, final, ultimate.
1831. For. Q. Rev., VII. 378. Alliterative metre is formed without … dependence upon the aid of terminal rhyme.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf. (ed. 3), 52. Bodies, in falling through a resisting medium, after a certain time acquire a uniform velocity, which is called their terminal velocity, with which they continue to descend.
1873. H. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., xiv. 336. The human being is at once the terminal problem of Biology and the initial factor of Sociology.
1877. Dowden, Shaks. Prim., iv. 41. These may be found as terminal words in the blank verse of Milton and of Wordsworth.
1885. Act 48 & 49 Vict., c. 58 § 2. The sums charged … shall … cover the costs of delivery … within … one mile of the terminal telegraphic office.
1895. Daily News, 14 Dec., 9/4. The terminal market, though dull, has been steadier, prices marking a recovery of 3d. to 6d. on the week.
b. Path. Applied to a morbid condition forming the final stage of a fatal disease.
1891. Cent. Dict., Terminal dementia, dementia forming the final and permanent stage of many cases of acute insanity.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 422. In the moribund a ‘terminal’ leucocytosis is frequently observed.
5. Belonging to or lasting for a term or definite period; esp. pertaining to a university or law term; occurring every term or at fixed terms; termly.
1827. Q. Rev., XXXVI. 259. Strict terminal examinations, on the topics of the college lectures, have been generally introduced.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xv. 260. This council sitting in terminal courts assisted the king in hearing suits.
1885. Sir N. Lindley, in Law Rep., 29 Ch. Div. 593. This terminal rent-charge is an incumbrance on the inheritance.
1885. Law Times, LXXX. 5/1. A set of rooms in college … at a yearly rent payable by three terminal payments.
1885. M. Pattison, Mem., 87. A share in the terminal examinations called ‘Collections.’
6. Logic. Pertaining to a term (TERM sb. 12).
1872. in Latham.
1891. Cent. Dict., Terminal quantity, the quantity of a term, as universal or particular.
B. sb. † 1. pl. Rendering L. Terminālia, name of an ancient Roman festival held annually in honor of the god Terminus: see TERMINUS 2, and cf. Saturnals, SATURNAL B. 2. Obs. rare–0.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Terminals (terminalia), feasts … kept in February at the eighth calends of March.
2. A terminal part or structure, i.e., one situated at or forming the end, or an end, of something; spec. a. in Electr. each of the free ends of an open circuit (by connecting which the circuit is closed), or any structure forming such an end, as the carbons in an arc light, or the clamping-screws in a voltaic battery by which it is connected with the wire that completes the circuit; b. Physiol. the end or end-structure of a nerve fiber or neuron; c. a carving or other ornament at the end of something, as a finial.
1850. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 2), 82. If the two platinum terminals of a voltaic battery be immersed in water, oxygen will be evolved at one and hydrogen at the other terminal.
1865. Morn. Star, 27 Feb. Seats … panelled with oak, the elbow rails having carved terminals.
1869. Mrs. Somerville, Molec. Sc., I. I. ii. 52. When the copper conducting wires are fitted with charcoal terminals and brought near to one another, the dazzling lights combine in one blaze.
1874. Carpenter, Mont. Phys., I. ii. § 89 (1879), 99. The terminals of the sensory tract of the axial cord.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 325. The ultimate naked fibrils (collaterals and terminals).
1904. Windle, Rem. Prehist. Age Brit., 100. Chapes or terminals to scabbards which may have belonged to daggers or to swords.
3. A final syllable, letter, or word; a termination.
1831. Westm. Rev., Jan., 61. The derivation of one word from another…, or rather the different states in which a root presents itself with terminals added.
1866. Sat. Rev., 21 April, 474. Madlle. Orgeni (German in spite of her patronymic terminal) comes directly from Berlin.
1904. Athenæum, 21 May, 646/2. Mr. Coleridge transposes the rhyming terminals ‘healthy’ and ‘wealthy.’
4. pl. Charges made by a railway company for the use of a terminus or other station, and for services rendered in loading or unloading goods, etc., there: see quot. 1887.
1878. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 183. There was a sum of £5000 or £6000 for ‘terminals.’
1884. Pall Mall G., 27 May, 3/1. To charge a reasonable sum for station terminals.
1887. Contemp. Rev., Jan., 82. The cost of collection, loading, covering, unloading, and delivering,… are the chief items included under the denomination of ‘terminals.’
5. A terminal station or premises on a railway, a terminus; a terminal point of a railway, a place or town at which it has a terminus. U.S.
1888. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 7 Aug., 3/2. The Canadian Pacific … company has purchased extensive dock property and terminals at Windsor, opposite Detroit.
1900. Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.), April, 135. The seaboard terminal is New York, with its three million of people.
1904. Kittredge, Old Farmer, 279. In 1801, as we learn from the Almanac, King’s Tavern, in Market Square, Boston, was the ‘terminal’ for the stages for Albany, New York [etc.].
6. A terminal figure: = TERM sb. 15, TERMINUS 3.
1876. Gwilt, Archit. Gloss, Term or Terminal. Ibid., Vagina, the lower part of a terminal in which a statue is apparently inserted.
