Also 4 calculacioun. [a. F. calculation, ad. L. calculātiōn-em, f. calculāre to reckon, CALCULATE. See -ATION.]
1. The action or process of reckoning; computation.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 230. A great magicien Shulde of his calculation, Seche of constellation, How they the citee mighten gette. Ibid., III. 46. He maketh his calculations, He maketh his demonstrations.
c. 1400. Maundev., 236. The Philosophres comen, and seyn here avys aftre her calculaciouns.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, III. xxv. 504 (R.). One Bartholomew Scultet, who is much commended for skill in Astronomie, hath by calculation found the very day.
1757. Johnson, Rambl., No. 154, ¶ 5. No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 412. All arithmetic and calculation have to do with number.
2. concr. The form in which reckoning is made; its product or result.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 134. If we suppose our present calculation, the Phaenix now in nature will be the sixt from the Creation.
1812. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park (1851), 81. If the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better.
1871. C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. 125. This calculation could not long suit the revenue.
3. Estimate of probability, forecast.
1847. Emerson, Repres. Men, vi. Napoleon, Wks. (Bohn), I. 372. His very attack was never the inspiration of courage, but the result of calculation.
1848. Lytton, Harold, v. 142. Hitherto, he had advanced on his career without calculation.
1864. Tennyson, Enoch Arden, 470. The lazy gossips of the port, Abhorrent of a calculation crost.
