a. [f. as prec. + -AL.]
1. Having the form of a cone; cone-shaped.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XI. Def. xvii. 318. A Conicall superficies.
1653. H. More, Conject. Cabbal. (1662), 59. That determinate Conical shadow of the Earth, which is Night.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 323. Burial under Conical hillocks … was sure very ancient.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 569. The conical summit is covered with grass.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 448. Jaws armed with a row of conical teeth.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 189.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., iii. § 1. 31, note. Taproots are said … to be … Conical, when tapering regularly … as in carrots.
2. Of, pertaining, or relating to a cone.
Conical point: a singular point on a surface at which the tangent lines form a cone. † Conical section (also c. line):= CONIC section (obs.). Conical projection: a method of projection (in maps, etc.) in which a part of a spherical surface is projected upon the surface of a tangent or secant cone which is then ‘developed’ or unrolled into a plane. Conical refraction: refraction in which a ray is converted into a hollow cone of light.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., 34. By Wheles … Conicall Section-lines … at pleasure, may be drawen.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. v. 70. By a Conicall line wee vnderstand a crooked line which differs from a circle, in as much as it keeps not alwayes an equal distance from the center.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 16. What the Theorists in Conical Sections demonstrate.
1665–6. Phil. Trans., I. 105. This motion is Conical and … by the Conick path all the Phænomena of Comets can be readily solved.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xxxv. 336. At the extremity, or conical point of the Earth’s shadow.
1866. Proctor, Handbk. Stars, 32. To form separate maps of small parts of the heavens … no method combines simplicity of construction with correctness so satisfactorily as the conical projection.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), II. viii. 107. As in the case of Conical Refraction … it actually forces upon our attention phenomena which no other eye had previously seen.
1874. Salmon, Geom. of 3 Dim. (ed. 3), 215. Through a conical point on a surface can be drawn an infinity of lines which will meet the surface in 3 coincident points, and these will all be on a cone of the second degree.
1884. C. Smith, Solid Geom., § 207. When the tangent lines at any point of a surface form a cone, the point is called a conical point.
3. Comb., as conical-shaped, adj.
1868. Q. Victoria, Life Highl., 145. A curious conical-shaped hill.
