▪ I. calculating, vbl. n.
(ˈkælkjʊˌleɪtɪŋ)
[f. as calculated pa. pple. and ppl. a. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. calculate; calculation: chiefly attrib., as in calculating-engine, calculating-machine, calculating-machinery, etc. calculating machine, any machine designed to carry out calculations, esp. one that performs arithmetical operations mechanically.
| 1710 Brit. Apollo III. 66 His Trigonometry for the Calculating of Sines, Tangents, etc. 1832 D. Brewster Lett. Natural Magic xi. 292 The calculating-machine now constructing under the superintendence of the inventor [sc. Babbage]. 1833 Brewster Nat. Magic xi. 292 The greater part of the calculating-machinery. 1855 Proc. R. Soc. VII. 499 Report of a Committee appointed by the Council to examine the Calculating Machine of M. Scheutz. 1878 Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. ii. §80. 90 Charles Babbage, the designer of the well-known calculating engine. 1890 Conan Doyle Sign of Four ii, You really are an automaton—a calculating machine. 1901 Nature 11 July 268/2 The advantages of the calculating machines..are so great, and they are in so many ways preferable to logarithms where they can be used. 1955 Koestler Trail of Dinosaur 184 The calculating machines called electronic brains. |
▪ II. calculating, ppl. a.1
(ˈkælkjʊˌleɪtɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That calculates; esp. that shrewdly or selfishly reckons the chances of gain or advantage. calculating boy, a child prodigy in arithmetic.
| 1809–12 M. Edgeworth Absentee ix, He was calculating and mercenary. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxxii, It had been resolved, with the most calculating cruelty. 1841 Miall in Nonconf. I. 145 Men of a hardier, more sincere, less calculating religion. 1866 North Brit. Rev. XLV. 39 Colburn, the American ‘calculating boy’, who was then being exhibited as a curiosity in Dublin. 1937 H. G. Wells Star Begotten vi. 91 The proportion of children of the calculating-boy and musical-prodigy type seemed to be increasing quite markedly. |
Hence ˈcalcuˌlatingly adv.
| 1855 Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys i. (1879) 7 Huldah Brown looked calculatingly upon the gathered material. |
▪ III. † calculating, ppl. a.2
Obs. See calculate v.2