continuous

continuous, a.
  (kənˈtɪnjuːəs)
  [f. L. continu-us hanging together, uninterrupted (f. contin-ēre in intr. sense ‘to hang together,’ etc.) + -ous.]
  1. a. Characterized by continuity; extending in space without interruption of substance; having no interstices or breaks; having its parts in immediate connexion; connected, unbroken.

1673 Grew Anat. Plants ii. iii. §3 It is Compounded of two Bodies. The one Parenchymous; Continuous throughout; yet somewhat Pliable without a solution of its Continuity. 1704 Newton Optics ii. ii. (1782) IV. 148 The dark intervals must be diminished, until the neighbouring rings become continuous, and are blended. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc vii. 6 Round the city stretch'd Their line continuous, massy as the wall Erst by the fearful Roman..raised. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. xii. (1873) 320 In most cases the area inhabited by a species is continuous. 1879 Lockyer Elem. Astron. vi. 228 If we light a match and observe its spectrum, we find that it is continuous—that is, from red through the whole gamut of colour to the visible limit of the violet. 1881 Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 6 Without describing a continuous line in space.

  b. In unbroken connexion with; joined continuously to; forming one mass with.

1692 Ray Dissol. World xi. v. (1732) 207 Anciently continuous with Malacca. 1700 S. Parker Six Philos. Ess. 95 The Superficies whereto it was continuous, etc. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ii. 25 The mucous membrane of the eye is continuous with the skin.

  † c. fig. Obs.

1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. iii. 252 They were so contiguous and near in kinred, they might not be made continuous (one flesh) in marriage.

  2. a. Of immaterial things, actions, etc.: Uninterrupted in time, sequence, or essence; going on without interruption; connected, unbroken.

1751 Harris Hermes ii. (1841) 187 Continuatives..consolidate sentences into one continuous whole. 1832 Nat. Philos., Electro-Magnet. xi. §176. 60 (Useful Knowl. Soc.) The currents transmitted by perfect conductors are continuous; that is, their intensity is either constant, or varies insensibly during two consecutive instants. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Continuous service men, those seamen who, having entered for a period, on being paid off, are permitted to have leave, and return to the flag-ship at the port for general service. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. App. (1876) 700 A continuous siege of six months. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 131 The power of abstract study or continuous thought is very rare. 1878 Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. vii. §215 Which will explain the continuous life of the universe as well as its continuous energy.

  b. Gram. Of verb tense-forms or aspect: denoting continuous action (see quots.). Cf. expanded ppl. a. 2 b and progressive a. 3 h.

1887 N.E.D. s.v. be v., B 15 With the present participle, forming continuous varieties of the tenses. 1892 H. Sweet New Eng. Gram. I. 102 Long tenses may be either continuous or recurrent, denoting repetition, habit, etc. Thus we have a continuous present in he lives in the country, a recurrent present in he goes to Germany twice a year. 1898 J. C. Nesfield Eng. Gram. v. 58 Continuous [tense]..denotes that the event (in Present, Past, or Future time) is still continuing, and is not yet completed; as, ‘I am loving’, ‘I was loving’, ‘I shall be loving’. 1904 C. T. Onions Advanced Eng. Syntax 112 When a Continuous Tense refers to a period of action, it often implies habit, e.g. ‘I shall be dining alone all week’. 1947 W. S. Allen Living Eng. Struct. 79 It might..be shown that as a continuous tense describes an action as it is taking place, the Present Continuous is the only real present tense we have in English. 1965 F. R. Palmer Linguistic Study Eng. Verb iv. 59 Every second pair in the paradigm..is progressive. There is no obvious name for the category... The terms ‘continuous’ and ‘non-continuous’ are sometimes used. 1985 R. Quirk et al. Comprehensive Gram. Eng. Lang. 197 The progressive aspect (sometimes called the durative or continuous aspect) indicates a happening in progress.

  3. technically. continuous assessment (Educ.), the evaluation of a pupil's progress throughout the course of study, based on course-work as well as, or instead of, examinations; see also assessment 5 b; continuous brake, a continuous series of carriage brakes controlled from one point, acting upon every carriage or wheel in a train; continuous consonants, those which are capable of prolonged enunciation (opposed to explosive); continuous creation, creation viewed as being a continuous process and not a single act at a particular time; spec. the view that the universe is in a steady state, new systems being formed continually to replace those that disappear; continuous-flow, used attrib. designating a system, device, etc., in which a fluid or other material flows continuously; continuous function (Math.), a function that varies continuously, and whose differential coefficient therefore never becomes infinite; continuous impost: see impost; continuous kiln (see quot. 1910); continuous miner (see quot. 1967); continuous process, an industrial process which operates without interruption (opp. batch process); continuous spectrum, ‘a spectrum not broken by bands or lines, but having the colors shaded into each other continuously, as that from an incandescent solid or liquid, or a gas under high pressure’ (Webster 1890) (cf. quot. 1879 for sense 1 a above); continuous stationery (see quot. 1942); continuous stem (Bot.), one without articulations; continuous style, in Gothic Architecture, a style in which the mullions of a window are continued in the tracery, as distinguished from the geometrical style of earlier Gothic; continuous tone (see quot. 1968); continuous variation, in Biol. (see quot. 1961); continuous voyage, a voyage which, though interrupted by stops at ports or otherwise, is regarded as a single voyage in reference to the purpose for which it was undertaken (e.g. the consignment of goods or materials); continuous wave, an electromagnetic (esp. radio) wave having constant amplitude and intensity; also attrib.

1959 15 to 18: Rep. Cent. Advisory Council for Educ. (Eng.) (Ministry of Educ.) I. xxv. 281 Some Institutes of Education are using analogous methods of *continuous assessment instead of examinations. 1973 Scotsman 13 Feb. 9/3 Continuous assessment makes up 55 per cent of gradings, exams 45 per cent. 1984 Frith & Macintosh Teacher's Guide to Assessment i. 28 Continuous assessment—a continuous updating of judgements about a pupil's performance.

1883 Stubbs' Mercantile Circ. 26 Sept. 862/2 The use of *continuous brakes on their several lines [of railway].

[1850 Latham Eng. Lang. (ed. 3) 144 Now b, p, t, etc. are explosive, f, v, etc. continuous.]

[1895 G. MacDonald Lilith vi. 35 The still face might be a primeval perfection; the live eyes were a continuous creation.] 1941 C. Singer Short Hist. Sci. v. 140 Averroes believed, not in a single act of creation, but in a *continuous creation. 1950 F. Hoyle Nature of Universe v. 107 With continuous creation the apparent contradiction between the expansion of the Universe and the requirement that the background material shall..condense into galaxies is completely overcome. 1956 Ann. Reg. 1955 397 The distribution of radio-stars favoured evolutionary theories of cosmology rather than more recent theories of continuous creation.

1958 New Biol. XXV. 93 The oxidation tanks were run on the *continuous-flow principle, with recirculation of a portion of the effluent to inoculate the influent. 1965 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) §17 p. 3 Continuous flow oxygen system, an oxygen system in which the oxygen flows during both inspiration and expiration.

1890 Sci. Amer. 11 Jan. 21/3 (heading) A *continuous brick kiln. 1901 Notes on Building Construction (ed. 5) III. iii. 193 Tunnel kilns, called also Continuous, ‘Running’, ‘Perpetual’, or ‘Draw-Kilns’. 1910 Encycl. Brit. IV. 520/1 Brick-kilns..can all be grouped under two main types—Intermittent kilns and Continuous kilns. Ibid. 520/2 The ‘continuous’ kiln..is really made up of a number of separate kilns or firing-chambers, built in series and connected..in such a manner that the products of combustion from one kiln may be made to pass through a number of other kilns before entering the flue.

1958 A. Nelson Methods of Working v. 61 Further studies by mining engineers..led to the design and development of machines which combined the operations of cutting, breaking and loading the coal... These combined machines are popularly known as ‘*continuous miners’. 1967 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) viii. 9 Continuous miner, a machine used mainly for the cutting and loading of coal or other mineral in mine entries or narrow places.

1909 Daily Chron. 11 June 7/2 Everything being on the automatic and *continuous-process principle. 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 389/1 The case which appears to have presented most difficulty in national legislation is the continuous process. 1954 [see batch n.1 7]. 1961 Times 22 Nov. 21/6 Many chemical plants, especially the continuous-process type, need very precise adjustment.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 124/2 Fluorescent radiation, showing a *continuous or banded spectrum, can be excited in many gases and vapours.

1942 H. A. Maddox Dict. Stationery (ed. 2) 26 *Continuous Stationery, a modern form of mechanical accounting stationery in which the sheets are of continuous length, sometimes folded concertina fashion. 1959 B.S.I. News Dec. 15 The sizes do not necessarily apply to continuous stationery. 1970 Brit. Printer June 76 Continuous stationery for computers is one of the fastest-growing specialisations in printing.

[1866 Treas. Bot. 325 A stem is said to be continuous which has no joints.]

1849 Freeman Archit. 379 There is also a tendency..throughout the *Continuous style, to extend the ornamental stonework.

1933 C. W. Gamble Mod. Illustration Processes vii. 125 We may take..an artist's drawing of a landscape of washes of black pigment upon white paper..as representing a drawing in ‘*continuous’ tone. 1967 E. Chambers Photolitho-offset iv. 43 With the indirect method the first negatives are made as formerly and they may be in continuous-tone or in dot formation. 1968 Gloss. Terms Offset Lithogr. Printing (B.S.I.) 10 Continuous tone, an image in which tonal gradation is produced by changes in density.

1894 W. Bateson Study of Variation 18 The fact that *Continuous Variations exist is also none the less a fact. 1961 Webster, Continuous variation, variation in which a series of intermediate types connects the extremes.

1806 C. Robinson Rep. Cases Crt. Admir. V. 365 marg., *Continuous voyage in the colonial trade of the enemy. 1808 Ibid. VI. App. note ii, That branch of the colonial principle which relates to continuous voyages. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 130/2 If the ultimate destination of goods, though shipped first to a neutral port, is enemy's territory, then, according to the ‘doctrine of continuous voyages’, the goods may be treated as if they had been shipped to the enemy's territory direct.

1911 A. B. Smith Mod. Amer. Telephony xxv. 663 If it were possible to produce *continuous waves for wireless telegraphy. 1920 H. M. Dowsett Wireless Telegr. iv. 70 Continuous wave transmitters. Ibid. 92 Any other long-distance continuous wave system. 1933 J. H. Morecroft Princ. Radio Communication (ed. 3) vii. 775 Tube B acts as oscillator and detector (self-heterodyne) for reception of continuous-wave signals. 1951 [see automatic direction finder].

Oxford English Dictionary