Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Gradual

Grad′u·al′ (grăd′ū·al; 135); a. [Cf; F. graduel. See Grade, and cf. Gradual, n.] Proceeding by steps or degrees; advancing, step by step, as in ascent or descent or from one state to another; regularly progressive; slow; as, a gradual increase of knowledge; a gradual decline.

Creatures animate with gradual life Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up in man. Milton.

Grad′u·al, n. [LL. graduale a gradual (in sense 1), fr. L. gradus step: cf. F. graduel. See Grade, and cf. Grail a gradual.] 1. (R. C. Ch.) (a) An antiphon or responsory after the epistle, in the Mass, which was sung on the steps, or while the deacon ascended the steps. (b) A service book containing the musical portions of the Mass.

2. A series of steps. [Obs.] Dryden.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.