▪ I. † inˈterpolate, ppl. a. Obs.
[ad. L. interpolāt-us, pa. pple. of interpolāre: see next.]
Interpolated. a. Interrupted, intermittent. b. Added surreptitiously; inserted.
With earliest quots. cf. interpolate v. 5 and obs. F. fièvre interpolée (Godef.).
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health cxxxvii. 50 b, A symple interpolate fever doth infest a man ones a day. A doble interpolate fever doth infest a man twyse a day. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I, 125 In the interpolate Fits of Agues. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 155 Though the place be most express for Infant Baptism, and the Book ancient, yet it is either spurious or interpolate. 1669 Addr. hopeful yng. Gentry Eng. 23 On publick [affairs], their interpolate jealousies..every where bring in growing discontents and murmurings. |
▪ II. interpolate, v.
(ɪnˈtɜːpəleɪt)
[f. ppl. stem of L. interpolāre to furbish up, to alter, f. inter (inter- 1 a) + -polāre, related to polīre to polish.]
† 1. trans. To polish or furbish up; to put a fresh gloss on. Obs. rare.
| 1623 Cockeram, Interpolate, to polish. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Interpolate (properly to bring old things to a new form), to new vamp,..to alter or falsify an Original. |
2. a. To alter or enlarge (a book or writing) by insertion of new matter; esp. to tamper with by making insertions which create false impressions as to the date or character of the work in question.
| 1612 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. xi. (R.), You admit Cæsar's copy to be therein not interpolated. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Cornwall i. (1662) 211 A Manuscript of Sir Ralph Hoptons..interpolated with his own hand. 1709 Phil. Trans. XXVI. 398 They had no more Allowance to alter them than they had to alter and interpolate the Text of the Author himself. 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages I. viii. 258 The poem of Beowulf..has been much interpolated by Christian transcribers. 1873 Clark & Wright Macbeth (Clar. Press ed.) p. xii, We are inclined to think that the play was interpolated after Shakspeare's death. |
b. transf. To adulterate, temper, or modify, by new or foreign additions.
| 1834 Blackw. Mag. XXXVI. 69 It was judged sufficient to interpolate, as it were, the hostile people by colonizations from Rome. 1862 Lytton Str. Story I. 212 The strange notions with which he was apt to interpolate the doctrines of practical philosophy. |
3. a. To introduce (words or passages) into a pre-existing writing; esp. to insert (spurious matter) in a genuine work without note or warning.
| 1640 Bp. Hall Episc. ii. xi. 157 Words which no Vedelius can carp at as interpolated. 1699 Bentley Phal. Introd. 22 The same Person has interpolated four Passages more. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1751, In these he [Lauder] interpolated some fragments of Hog's Latin translation of that poem. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. II. xxx. 243 It interpolated into the statute-book the exclusion of papists from the established equality. |
b. transf. To insert or introduce (something additional or different) between other things, or in a series; to intercalate.
| 1802–12 Bentham Ration. Evid. Wks. 1843 VI. 237 You may..oblige me to interpolate a number..of intermediate causes. 1837 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 101 By interpolating a month of 30 days. 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. iii. 28 A great thickness of sandstone is there interpolated between the magnesian limestone and the carboniferous strata. 1843 Mill Logic iii. xii. §3 Future experience may..interpolate another link. |
c. (With the words spoken as object.) To interpose orally.
| 1881 Mrs. J. H. Riddell Senior Partner I. vii. 151 ‘I have not a word to say against Effie,’ began..Robert... ‘If ye had, ye'd best not say it before me,’ interpolated his father. 1908 Smart Set June 142/1 ‘I suppose I may claim some eminence as physicians go.’ ‘Top notch of the whole bunch, dad!’ interpolated Keene. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 614 What year would that be about? Mr Bloom interpolated. |
4. intr. or absol. To make insertions or interpolations.
| 1720 Gay Poems (1745) II. 107 Criticks in Classicks oft interpolate, But ev'ry word of thine is fix'd as fate. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 329 Have not other writers elsewhere interpolated, invented, and forged? 1845 Graves Rom. Law in Encycl. Metrop. II. 773/1 They were to select all that was best, with permission to alter and interpolate. |
† 5. trans. To interrupt by an interval. (Only in pass.: cf. interpolate ppl. a.) Obs. rare.
| a 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. iii. 79 This motion even of the Heavenly Bodies themselves seems to be partly continued and unintermitted..partly interpolated and interrupted. Ibid. 96 The alluvion of the Sea upon those Rocks might not be eternally continued, but interpolated. |
6. Math. To insert an intermediate term or terms in a series (see interpolation 3 b). With the series, or now usually the term, as obj. Also absol. or intr., to use or perform interpolation. Also fig.
| 1796 Hutton Math. Dict. I. 640/2 A general theorem for Interpolating any term is as follows. 1882 Ogilvie s.v., To interpolate a number or a table of numbers. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 8/2 The reciprocal of a number of five figures is therefore taken out at once, and two more figures may be interpolated for as in logarithms. 1905 [see extrapolate v. 2 b]. 1928 Monthly Notices R. Astron. Soc. LXXXVIII. 506 The Lagrangian method of interpolating to fixed sub-divisions of an interval. 1968 Fox & Mayers Computing Methods for Scientists & Engineers i. 11 Interpolating for y(2·5), from given values at x = 2 and x = 3, the formula gives y(2·5) = 22y(3)/35 + 18y(2)/35. |
Hence inˈterpolated ppl. a.; inˈterpolating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| a 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. v. 113 That Individual hath necessarily a concomitant succession of interpolated Motions. 1695–6 T. Smith in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 239, I..found it to bee the interpolated copy of Symeon Metaphrastes. 1796 Hutton Math. Dict. I. 641/1 This series for the interpolated term will break off, and terminate. 1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 508/1 Generally speaking..the interpolated values are as correct as the tabular ones. 1851–9 Whewell in Man. Sci. Enq. 67 This way of finding the exact time of high water (or low water) from observations made every five or every ten minutes..is called ‘interpolating’. 1875 Ouseley Mus. Form 109 Bar 24 is an interpolated bar to prolong the cadence. |
▪ III. interpolate, n. Math.
(ɪnˈtɜːpələt)
[f. L. interpolāt-us, pa. pple. of interpolāre (see interpolate v.): see -ate1 b.]
A value arrived at by interpolation.
| 1920 Tracts for Computers 11. 17 As a rule the interpolation formulae work, but once in a while bitter experience forces us up against cases in which increasing the number of differences..is quite ineffectual as a method of obtaining accurate interpolates. 1932 Proc. Edin. Math. Soc. III. 56 For example, a linear interpolate u0.683 can be computed from u0 and u1 as u0.683 = 0·317u0 + 0·683u1. 1946 [see interpolant]. 1956 F. B. Hildebrand Introd. Numerical Analysis ii. 35 If more reliable interpolates are desired, it is clearly necessary to make use of more information than that consisting merely of tabulated values (ordinates) of a function, corresponding to two successive abscissas. |