continued, ppl. a.
(kənˈtɪnjuːd)
[f. prec. + -ed.]
1. a. Carried on or kept up without cessation; continual, constant.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 91 Contynuyd, kepte wythe-owte cessynge, continuatus. 1532 R. Bowyer in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. xvii. 134 By their constitution in the last and yet continued Convocation. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves i. xxxix. 65 A continued patience I commend not. 1628 Earle Microcosm. xlvi. 99 His conversation is a kind of continued complement. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 350 Cold Weather, and continu'd Rain. 1872 E. Peacock Mabel Heron I. v. 74 This continued astonishment was a part of her life. |
b. continued fever (see continual a. 3).
| 1776–83 Cullen First Lines §27 Wks. 1827 I. 488 When it happens..that the remission is not considerable..the disease is called a Continued Fever. 1799 Med. Jrnl. II. 301 The second book treats of continued fevers. 1858 J. Copland Dict. Med. I. 367 Dr. Tweedie has divided continued fever into Simple, Complicated, and Typhus. |
2. Extended in space without interruption or breach of connexion; continuous.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 232 That Horse is best which is of one continued colour. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 342 One continued country, passable from one to the other, without helpe of Sea. 1636 Blunt Voy. Levant (1637) 8 A hilly country..in a manner a continued Wood, most of Pine trees. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxvii. §3 An Atom, i.e. a continu'd Body, under one immutable Superficies. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 190 The ground is burnt up to that degree, that the surface of it appears like one continued cinder. |
3. a. Carried on in a series or sequence; connected or linked together in succession; continuous.
| 1628 T. Spencer Logick 123 A Continued similitude, is when the second terme, is to the third, as the first is to the second. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 63 The space of seven continu'd Nights he rode With darkness. 1704 J. Trapp Abra-Mulé ii. i, One continu'd Series of Misfortunes. 1790 Paley Horæ Paul. i. 8 [They] have each given a continued history of St. Paul's life. |
b. continued story: a serial story. U.S.
| 1880 ‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad (ed. 3) 299 The less important dailies give one a tablespoonful of a continued story every day. 1881 Rittenhouse Maud (1939) 7 Elmer brought me the Sunday Bulletin with that sweet continued story in it. 1932 W. Cather Obscure Destinies 89 Grandmother loved to read..the continued story in the Chicago weekly paper. 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 10/2 Note the ‘continued story’ technique of nineteenth-century and Hearst journalism. |
4. a. continued proportionals: a series of quantities such that the ratio is the same between every two adjacent terms; such quantities are said to be in continued proportion. continued fraction: a fraction whose denominator is an integer plus a fraction, which latter fraction has for its denominator an integer plus a fraction, and so on.
| 1796 Hutton Math. Dict. s.v. Continual Proportionals, A series of continual or continued proportionals is otherwise called a progression. 1827 ― Course Math. I. 113 But when the difference or ratio of every two succeeding terms is the same quantity, the proportion is said to be Continued, and the numbers themselves make a series of Continued Proportionals, or a progression. |
† b. continued bass (in Music) = thoroughbass. [It. basso continuo.]
| 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Continued, or thorough-bass, in music, is that which continues to play constantly; both during the recitatives, and to sustain the choir or chorus. |