[ad. L. triplicāt-us, pa. pple. of triplicāre (rare) to triple.]
A. adj. Threefold, triple; forming three exactly corresponding copies; consisting of or related to three corresponding parts.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 239. A triplicate honor was ȝiffen to a kynge … hauenge victory, in his commenge to the cite of Rome.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 19 § 10. One parte of the seid Writyng triplicate to be indented shall remayne with the seid Commissioners.
1528. in Burnet, Hist. Ref. (1679), I. Records II. iv. 25. Certain Expeditions Triplicat; the one unto the Prothonotar Gambora, the other unto Gregory de Cassali, and the third unto me.
1756. Gentl. Mag., Oct., 461/1. It was always customary to make double and triplicate bills of loading.
1862. Beveridge, Hist. India, III. VIII. iii. 333. The conclusion of a triplicate treaty by the British government, the Maharajah, and Shah Shujah-ul-Moolk.
1902. W. M. Alexander, Demonic Possession in N. T., iii. 61. There are … duplicate or triplicate narratives of these three cases.
b. Triplicate proportion, ratio: the proportion or ratio of cubes (third powers) in relation to that of the radical quantities.
1660. Barrow, Euclid, V. Def. x. When 4 magnitudes A, B, C, D are proportional, the first A shall have a triplicate ratio to the fourth D of what it had to the second B.
1674. Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, 44. Like pieces of Timber, that are in cubical or triplicate proportion of their Sides, are strong but according to duplicate proportion, or the Squares of their respective Sides.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 45. The Gravity of Bodies decreases in a Triplicate, but their Surface in a Duplicate Proportion of their Diameters.
1806. Hutton, Course Math. (1810), I. 314. The Ratio of the First [quantity] to the Third, will be duplicate or the Square of the Ratio of the First and Second; and the Ratio of the First and Fourth will be triplicate or the cube of that of the First and Second, and so on.
c. Triplicate quartan (ague) = triple quartan (TRIPLE a. 5).
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 613. Quartanus triplicatus. Triplicate quartan.
d. In combination, as triplicate-ternate (Bot.) = TRITERNATE.
1847. in Webster.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, Triplicate-ternate, triternate (Crozier).
B. sb. 1. One of three things exactly alike, esp. one of three copies of a document; pl. three things exactly alike.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), II. 23, note. There are three portraits of himself,… and three triplicates of his mistress.
1801. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp. (1837), I. 284. I have the honor to enclose the triplicate of a letter to the Governor of Bombay.
1835. J. Batman, in Cornwallis, New World (1859), I. App. 410. I busied myself in drawing up triplicates of the deeds of the land I had purchased.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, II. VII. v. 200. Not only a duplicate, but a triplicate of the desecrated relic were regarded with undiminished adoration both in Pegu and Ceylon.
b. In triplicate: in three exactly corresponding copies or transcripts. Also transf.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1838), VI. 170. Desire Captain Eliott to send his account of the expenditure in Triplicate.
1860. Hook, Lives Abps., II. vii. 412. The constitutions were written in triplicate.
1894. Times, 7 Aug., 6/2. Many of the trains … were run in duplicate and triplicate.
† 2. Triplicate ratio; third power, cube. Obs. rare.
1767. Murdoch, in Phil. Trans., LVIII. 28. The accelerative force of A … will be increased in the triplicate of that ratio.
