sacrificial, a.
(sækrɪˈfɪʃəl)
[f. L. sacrifici-um + -al1. Cf. the older sacrifical; also 16th c. F. sacrificial.]
1. a. Pertaining to or connected with sacrifice.
| 1607 Shakes. Timon i. i. 81 Raine Sacrificiall whisperings in his eare. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Sacrificial (sacrificialis) of or belonging to a Sacrifice, Offering, or Oblation. 1737 Waterland Rev. Doctr. Eucharist i. 53 This Observation will be of use, when we come to consider the Eucharist in its Sacrificial View. 1799 Gilpin Serm. Country Congregat., etc. III. xxxviii. (R.), The law may be explained as an institution..threatening judgment on every transgression; at the same time, accepting, in mercy, certain sacrificial atonements. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Stonehenge Wks. (Bohn) II. 123 The sacrificial stone, as it is called, is the only one in all these blocks, that can resist the action of fire. 1864 Max Müller Chips (1867) I. 104 Innumerable sacrificial utensils. Ibid. 110 All this would be embodied in the sacrificial formulas known in later times principally by the name of Yagush. |
b. sacrificial mound: a prehistoric mound built by the natives of certain parts of America and containing a hearth or altar, on which are found relics exhibiting traces of the action of fire.
| 1862 D. Wilson Preh. Man I. xii. 370 The name of sacrificial mounds has been conferred on a class of ancient monuments..peculiar to the New World. |
2. Self-sacrificing. nonce-use.
| 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 160 ‘That's all very well’, said the sacrificial parent, ‘but five or six hours are not so easy to dispose of at sixty odd’. |
3. Comm. Involving ‘sacrifice’ or loss to the vendor.
| 1895 Daily News 24 Dec. 6/2 Jewelled trimmings..will be sold at much reduced prices during next week's sacrificial sales. 1902 Daily Chron. 19 June 7/2 The first Monday in July, the traditional date for the opening of the summer sales, when ladies demand sacrificial prices. |
4. Involving or being an anode of a metal that is used up when protecting another metal against electrolytic corrosion.
| 1861 Mechanics' Mag. 5 Apr. 229/1 A curious statement made in the House of Commons, a few days ago, induces us to offer a few remarks on what may be called, appropriately enough, ‘the sacrificial function in metals’... Failing..to achieve what was intended of it, the copper-protecting process of Davy ceased to be employed; but the failure of it is that which alone concerns us here, as illustrating what we would wish to convey by the words sacrificial metal. 1937 U. R. Evans Metallic Corrosion Passivity & Protection xii. 531 The protection method is sacrificial, the valuable iron boiler being protected by sacrificing the easily replaceable zinc. 1949 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts XCVII. 598 A sufficient cathodic current density may be impressed upon structures of iron or steel by the use of external anodes of magnesium, aluminium or zinc, the anode undergoing ‘sacrificial corrosion’. 1968 Rep. Progr. Appl. Chem. LIII. 69 It was better to use an all-nickel coating..rather than a copper undercoat where sacrificial corrosion resulted in complete loss of plate. 1976 Daily Tel. 25 Nov. 7/1 It is common practice to fit the pipes with collars of a zinc alloy, which act as ‘sacrificial anodes’, corroding in preference to the steel pipe. 1978 Metals (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) 7 Zinc is ideal as a sacrificial metal for the corrosion-protection of steel. |
Hence sacriˈficialness. rare—0.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Sacrificialness, the being of the Nature of a Sacrifice. |