cubical, a.
(ˈkjuːbɪkəl)
[f. prec. + -al1.]
1. Of or pertaining to a cube; of the form of a cube, cube-shaped. (Now more usual than cubic in this sense.) cubical powder = cube powder; see cube n.1 3.
| 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 70 b, In the lowest Cubicall Figure..were ingrauen Greeke letters. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. B iv, How to measure a Cubical vessel. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 308 The small grains of sea salt and of lead are cubical. 1817 Keatinge Trav. I. 203 Houses..mostly of cubical forms. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 103 A nearly cubical piece of a long epidermal cell. |
2. Mensuration. = cubic a. 2. (Now Obs. in cubical foot and the like; and less common than cubic in other applications.)
| 1571 Digges Pantom. iii. iv. Q iij, So many cubicall feete is in the hollowe vessell. 1660 Willsford Scales Comm. 197 Each of these Segments contains 50 cubical yards of earth. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xi. 440 Multiply by 1728, the number of cubical inches in a cubical foot. 1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 183, 100 cubical inches. 1871 B. Stewart Heat 39 To determine the cubical dilatation of a solid. |
3. Arith., Alg., etc. = cubic a. 3. Obs. exc. in names of certain cubic curves, as cubical parabola, cubical hyperbola, etc.
| 1571 Digges Pantom. iii. ix. R ij, The roote cubicall of your Quotiente is the side of the lesser Cone or Pyramis. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xii. 209 Quadrate and cubicall numbers. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Parabola, If a2x = y3; they call it a cubical paraboloid. 1873 B. Williamson Diff. Calc. (ed. 2) xviii. §252 The curve y2 = x2 (x-a)..is a cubical parabola having a conjugate point. |
† B. n. = cubic n. Obs.
| 1676 Baker in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 13 All cubicals being reducible..to three equations. |