rhythmical, a.
(ˈrɪðmɪkəl, ˈrɪθmɪkəl)
Also 6–7 rith-, 6–9 ryth-.
[f. as prec.: see -ical.]
† 1. Composing verse; riming. Obs.
| 1567 Drant Horace, Ep. To Rdr., To become a sillye translator rythmical, and thervnto an harde wryter. |
† 2. Written in riming verse. Obs.
| 1599 (title), The first Booke of the Preservation of King Henrie the vij... Compiled in English rythmicall Hexameters. 1695 J. Edwards Author. O. & N.T. III. 174 The other Assertion,..that the Psalms and other Pieces of Hebrew Poetry are always Rhythmical, necessarily infers a great many Faults..in the Scriptures. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. vii. 126 If the Psalms could be turned into a Rhythmical Poesy, with the Alteration only of a few Verses. |
3. a. Of language, verse: Marked by or moving in rhythm; composed in rhythm; often, having a good, smooth, or flowing rhythm.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. vii[i]. (Arb.) 93 As the smoothnesse of your words and sillables..make with the Greekes and Latines the body of their verses numerous or Rithmicall. 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (1613), Rhythmicall, made in meeter. 1725 R. Brunne's Chron. p. lxi, The old Rhythmical Life of this holy Virgin. 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 684 note, That Lord Surrey was the first who gave us metrical instead of rhythmical versification. 1846 Grote Greece i. xxi. II. 187 The rhapsode recited..a species of musical and rhythmical declamation. 1872 W. Minto Eng. Prose Lit. 337 In Cowley we see..the first habitual practice of the chief arts of rhythmical balance. |
b. gen. Of motion, etc.
| a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. ii. §4 (1622) 315 As they ascribe a rythmicall motion, vnto the Starres; so doe they an harmonicall, vnto the Heauens. 1776 Burney Hist. Mus. I. 263 The first music mentioned in the Græcian history..consisted of a rhythmical clash of swords. 1847 Grote Greece ii. xvi. III. 285 Dancing or rhythmical gesticulation. 1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. x. §83 (1867) 255 Double Stars..exhibit settled rhythmical actions. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. v. 145 The evolution of the steam is by fits and starts, or even..by rhythmical puffs and bursts. 1889 Boy's Own Paper 14 Sept. 789/3 The rhythmical cadence of the oars. |
c. Phys. and Path. (See rhythm n. 7 b.)
| 1840 Laycock Nerv. Dis. Women 186 The true or rhythmical chorea. 1866 Huxley Physiol. ii. 41 The contraction of the heart is rhythmical, two short contractions of its upper and lower halves respectively being followed by a pause of the whole. 1883 Nature 22 Mar. 487 In rhythmical actions, such as that of the respiration. |
d. Art. (See rhythm n. 6.)
| 1880 C. Waldstein Pythagoras of Rhegion 22 The general modelling and the rhythmical treatment of the whole figure. |
4. Relating to, concerning, or involving rhythm.
| a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xii. (1622) 343 All the seuerall Sorts of Musick, both Harmonical, Rithmicall, and Organicall. 1776 Burney Hist. Mus. I. 72 The first part of these rhythmical observations shall be confined to lyric poetry. 1846 Poe M. E. Hewitt Wks. 1864 III. 118 Less through rythmical skill than a musical ear. 1867 Macfarren Harmony i. 27 Let me define this term, close, as meaning the completion of any rhythmical period. 1880 F. Hueffer in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 149/1 A greater liberty in the rhythmical phrasing of the music is warranted by the metre of the poem itself. |
Hence rhythmiˈcality, rhythmical property.
| 1885 G. J. Romanes Jelly-fish, etc. 186 The contractile tissues which have longest retained their primitive endowment of rhythmicality. |