annual, a. and n.
(ˈænjuːəl)
Also 4–7 annuel(l.
[a. OFr. annuel, ad. later L. annuāl-em (= cl. annāl-em); refashioned after the L. c 1500.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or belonging to the year; reckoned, payable, or engaged by the year; yearly.
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xxxvii. 14 The annuel werker [1388 A werk man hirid bi the ȝear]. a 1420 Hoccleve Male Regle 51 Thy rentes annuel. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 73 Giues him three thousand Crownes in Annuall Fee. 1769 Burke Pres. St. Nat. Wks. II. 73 That trade..is not of less annual value..than 400,000l. 1852 M{supc}Culloch Taxation iii. iii. 470 At an annual charge to the public of 30,174,364l. |
b. Pertaining to a year's events: as annual stories, annual histories (obs.), i.e. yearly chronicles, annals; annual register.
| 1502 Arnold Chron. (1811) 140 Titoleuoo that hath breuied all y⊇ annuell storys of Rome. 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Wars i. 14 Inferiour princes, whose continued obsequies filled the Annual Register. 1789 (title) The New Annual Register, or General Repository of History, Politics and Literature for the year 1788. 1861 (title) The Annual Retrospect of Engineering and Architecture. |
c. annual ring = ring n.1 7 c.
| 1879 in R. Hunter et al. Encycl. Dict. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 417/1 Annual rings. 1905 Sci. Amer. Suppl. 25 Mar. 24433/1 A partial or entire separation of two consecutive annual rings. 1928 Forestry II. 127 The term ‘annual ring’, originally used in describing the structure of European trees, was later expanded to include the zones of growth discernible..in the trunks of tropical trees. |
2. a. Performed or recurring once every year; yearly. annual general meeting, the yearly meeting of shareholders or members, at which annual reports are read, officers elected, etc.; cf. general meeting s.v. general a. 2 a. Abbrev. A.G.M. s.v. A III.
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Hebr. xi. 28 (R.) Y annual vse or ceremonie to eate the Paschall Lambe. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 431 So stears the prudent crane Her annual Voiage. 1714 Addison Spect. No. 579 ¶7 Come up to the Temple with their annual Offerings. 1827 Keble Chr. Year S. bef. Adv. ii, The Church our annual steps has brought. 1879 Tablet 14 June 739/1 The annual general meeting of the Catholic Union of Great Britain. a 1884 Mod. The Annual Meeting of the association. 1908 Nevill & Jerningham Piccadilly to Pall Mall vi. 221 Up to 1892 there had been no general annual meeting of the members of Brooks's Club. 1937 Discovery Apr. 97/1 The annual general meeting of the [British] Association. 1985 Washington Post 29 Nov. d9/4 The annual general meeting of the 90-nation organization began Monday. |
b. annual equation of the sun and moon: the determination of the difference between the theoretical and actual position of those bodies, due to the irregular orbital motions of the earth and moon.
| 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The annual equation of the mean motion of the sun depends upon the eccentricity of the earth's orbit..The greatest annual equation of the moon's mean motion is 11{p}, 40{pp}, of its apogee 20{p}, and of its node 9{p}, 30{pp}. 1849 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. v. 41 The Annual Equation [of the moon] depends on the sun's distance from the earth; it arises from the moon's motion being accelerated when that of the earth is retarded. |
3. Repeated every year and occupying the whole year.
| 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. v. 112 The sunne, which is carried round about the earth in an Annual circuit. 1714 Grove Spect. No. 588 ¶1 No more than the diurnal Rotation of the Earth is opposed to its Annual. 1879 Froude Cæsar xxv. 425 The annual course of the sun was completed in 365 days and six hours. |
4. Existing or lasting for a year only; changed each year. a. of an office or officer. annual priests; see B 1.
| 1382 Pol. Poems (1859) I. 267 That frers shal annuel prestes bycome. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 228 To paye this summe the annual prestis were compelled. 1659 Milton Let. in Wks. 1738 I. 583 Whether the Civil Government be an annual Democracy or a perpetual Aristocracy. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 286/1 The annual archons..to the time of Solon, were taken from the eupatridæ. 1877 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvi. 433 The commons pray that there may be annual parliaments. |
b. of a plant.
| a 1626 Bacon (J.) The dying in the winter of the roots of plants that are annual. 1706 Phillips, Annual Leaves are such as come up in the Spring, and perish in the Winter. 1720 Swift To Stella Wks. 1755 III. ii. 185 Grafting on an annual stock That must our expectation mock. 1857 Henfrey Elem. Bot. §47 When a bulb flowers from its terminal bud, in its first season of growth, it is annual. |
B. n.
1. R.C. Ch. A mass said either daily for a year after, or yearly on the anniversary of, a person's death; also, the payment made for it.
| 1382 Pol. Poems (1859) I. 267 Suche annuels has made thes frers so wely and so gay. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) vii. xxii. 310 Ye may for xx shellynges do synge a quarter of an annuell. 1502 Arnold Chron. 274 They cause masses to be songe or other annual or trental. 1646 J. Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 34 The annuells, obits, and altarages within burghs. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Annual is used in ecclesiastical writers to denote a yearly office, said for the soul of a person deceased on the day of his obit or anniversary. |
2. An annual or yearly payment, tribute, allowance, etc. Obs. exc. in Sc. Law, where annual = quit-rent, ground-rent. Hence annual of annual = quit-rent of a quit-rent, or smallest possible return.
| 1622 Bacon Henry VII, 111 Fiue and twentie thousand Crownes yearely..For which Annuall, etc. 1637 Rutherford Lett. 119 (1862) I. 297 Had I but the annual of annual to give to my Lord Jesus, it would ease my pain. 1768 Chesterfield Lett. 321 IV. 266, I will send your annual to Mr. Larpent..and pay the forty shillings a day quarterly. 1866 Bell Conveyanc. (1882) II. 1155 The ground-annual is a right of very early origin. |
3. a. Anything that lasts only for a year.
| 1738 Swift Polite Convers. (R.) Oaths are the children of fashion; they are in some sense almost annuals. |
b. esp. An annual plant; one that lives only for a year (perpetuating itself by seed, so that there is an annual succession of new plants). Also hardy annual (lit. and fig.): see hardy a. 4 b. Less frequently applied to an animal.
| 1685 Evelyn Diary 6 Aug. (1955) IV. 462 The Apothecaries Garden of simples at Chelsey: where there..[are] many rare annuals. 1710 Swift Apol. T. of Tub (Jod.) They are indeed like annuals, that grow about a young tree. 1726 De Foe Hist. Devil ii. iv. (1840) 212 Like an annual in a garden, which must be raised anew every season. 1767 Abercrombie Ev. Man his own Gardener 49 To prepare for sowing some of the more curious forms of annuals. 1834 Paxton's Mag. Bot. I. 18 Treatment of Hardy Annuals. 1866 Treas. Bot. 966/1 Mignonette..is usually treated as an annual. 1883 Day Indian Fish 31 The various modes in which the reproduction of these fishes is carried on... Whether the parents are monogamous, polygamous, or are annuals dying after the reproductive process has been accomplished. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 20 June 3/2 Presumably a time will come when even such a wonderfully hardy annual [as Sarah Bernhardt] will fail to reappear. |
4. A book of which successive numbers are published once a year, usually at the same date; esp. one that conveys information for the year, or reviews the events of the past year; a year-book.
| 1689 Answ. Two Papers 37 Renowned in all the Histories of Europe, as well as in our Annuals. 1825 J. Wilson in Page De Quincey I. xii. 270 The volume..if an annual..can yield you fifty guineas. 1840 (title) Peter Parley's Annual. 1859 T. Lewin Invas. Brit. 37 The rule laid down for the guidance of mariners in the annual referred to [Admiralty Tidal Tables]. |