▪ I. librate, n. Hist.
(ˈlaɪbreɪt)
Also 7 librat.
[ad. med.L. lībrāta (sc. terra), f. lībra pound: see -ate1.]
A piece of land worth a pound a year.
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art Survey ii. vii. 59 Then must the Obolat be ½ Acre, the Denariat an Acre, the Solidat 12. acres, & the Librat 240. 1778 Pennant Tour Wales I. 26 Henry III..grants..ten librates [Dugdale decem libratas terræ] in Longenedale in Derbyshire. 1865 Nichols Britton II. 143 Twenty librates of land with the appurtenances. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. (1896) II. xiv. 119 The sheriffs were ordered to send all persons who possessed more than twenty librates of land. |
▪ II. librate, v.
(ˈlaɪbreɪt)
[f. L. lībrāt-, ppl. stem of lībrā-re, f. lībra balance.]
† 1. trans. a. To place in the scales, to weigh. b. To poise, balance. c. To produce or cause libration in: see quot. 1806 s.v. librating below. Obs.
| 1623 Cockeram, Librate, to weigh. 1657 Tomlinson Renou's Disp. 144 All seeds..are librated by weight [orig. pondere semper librantur]. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 423 The Needles be touched by good Load-stones, and well librated. 1674 Ibid. IX. 219 The manner of Librating the Apogéum. |
2. intr. To oscillate like the beam of a balance; to move from side to side or up and down.
| 1694 W. Holder Harmony (1731) 28 Librating after the Nature of a Pendulum. 1730 Savery in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 298, I was obliged to keep it in a Motion..librating up and down like the Beam of a Pair of Scales. 1770 Ibid. LX. 70 The whole limb of Venus would sometimes librate towards the limb of the sun. 1867 G. Macdonald Disciple, etc. 109 To drop, and spin away, Librating. |
b. To oscillate or waver between one thing and another.
| 1822 Examiner 250/2 He..is librating between vice and virtue. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. II. 34 The barometer slowly librating between 29.20 and the old 30.40. |
3. Of a bird, etc.: To be poised, balance itself.
| 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek 198 The birds of the air, librating over me, served as a canopy from the rays of the sun. 1791 E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. 138 Her playful sea-horse..librates on unmoving fins. 1829 Jrnl. Naturalist 263 Made to flutter and librate like a kestrel over the place. |
Hence ˈlibrated ppl. a., balanced (fig.); ˈlibrating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1665–6 Phil. Trans. I. 241 Some kind of Librating motion. 1801 Fuseli in Lect. Paint. ii. (1848) 404 The academic vigour, the librated style, of Annibale Carracci. 1806 Robertson in Phil. Trans. XCVII. 73 The librating force or pressure, or the force causing libration. 1839 Bailey Festus (1854) 332 These strange librating bonds of birth and death. 1862 T. Z. Lawrence in R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art 15 A librating circular smoky spectrum will be perceived at the end of the tube. |