equate, v.
(ɪˈkweɪt)
Also 7 æquate.
[f. L. æquāt- ppl. stem of æquā-re: see equate pa. pple.]
† 1. trans. To make (bodies) equal; to balance. Obs. rare.
| 1530 Palsgr. 539/1 They were nothyng egall, but he hath nowe equated them. 1755 B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sc. 394 The Guinea and large Piece of Cork..seem not to be nicely equated in Weight. |
† 2. To take the average of. Obs.
| 14.. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (1841) 439 Mete fyrst how many roddes that one ende is over thwart, and in lyke wyse mete that other ende. Than equate that. |
b. Astr. To reduce to an average; to make the allowances necessary for bringing observations to a common standard, or for obtaining a correct result.
| 1633 T. James Voy. Q ij, The Declination was not equated. 1677 R. Cary Chronol. i. i. i. xii. 44 With some other Epagomenae at the end of the Year, or in a short period of Years fit to equate the Motion of the Sun. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., To Equate solar days, that is to convert apparent into mean time, and mean into apparent time. 1833 Herschel Astron. iv. 174 This last process is technically termed correcting or equating the observation for nutation. |
3. Math. To state the equality of (one quantity) to or with (another); to state the equality between (two quantities); to put in the form of an equation.
| 1779 Hutton in Phil. Trans. LXX. 9 The fluxion of this expression being equated to 0. 1806 ― Course Math. I. 229 By equating the terms which contain like powers of z. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. iv. iii. §24 It is not to be chipped out by the geologist or equated by the mathematician. 1883 Nature XXVII. 225 By equating the computed difference to the actual difference. |
4. transf. and fig. To treat, regard, or represent as equivalent.
| 18.. De Quincey Philos. Herod. Wks. 1862 VIII. 211 Three generations were equated to a century. 1840 Gladstone Ch. Princ. 399 The danger of confounding true and false by equating them [forms of religion] all. 1877 Skeat Piers Plowm. Notes 460 Marlow uses the word ‘chary’ rather artfully, so that it may be equated either to ‘dearly’ or ‘carefully’. 1882 J. Rhys Celtic Brit., App. 278 Boudicca might perhaps be equated..with such a Latin name as Victorina. 1885 Ch. Q. Rev. Oct. 95 In the Book of Leinster thirty four foreign saints are equated with natives. |
Hence eˈquated ppl. a., eˈquating vbl. n.
| 1633 H. Gellibrand in T. James Voy. R ij, The æquated Anomaly of the {moonlq} orbe. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 338 He divulged his invention of the equating of a streight line to a crooked or parabole. 1694 E. Halley in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 251 When the æquated Number II. is less than 113. 1790 Herschel ibid. LXXI. 122 The clock altered to true equated time. 1817 H. T. Colebrooke Algebra, etc. 312 The mean or equated depth. 1870 Bowen Logic vi. 160 It makes no difference which of the equated quantities is placed first. |
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Add: 5. intr. To agree or correspond with; (more rarely) to be equivalent to.
| 1934 in Webster. 1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. vii. 169 The Makalian Wet Phase probably equates in time with the warm Atlantic stage in Northern Europe, between c. 5,500 B.C. and c. 2,500 B.C. 1965 E. J. Howard After Julius i. iv. 44 If this equates with being idiotic, that's what I am. 1972 Daily Tel. 14 Sept. 15/2 In England, good design frequently equates with commercial suicide. 1984 Standard 21 Nov. 36/1 (Advt.), The annual leave period equates to five weeks. 1985 M. Stott Before I Go viii. 177 Cleanliness does not equate with godliness. |