a. [f. L. continu-us hanging together, uninterrupted (f. contin-ēre in intr. sense ‘to hang together,’ etc.) + -OUS.]
1. Characterized by continuity; extending in space without interruption of substance; having no interstices or breaks; having its parts in immediate connection; connected, unbroken.
1673. Grew, Anat. Plants, II. iii. § 3. It is Compounded of two Bodies. The one Parenchymous; Continuous throughout; yet somewhat Pliable without a solution of its Continuity.
1704. Newton, Optics, II. II. (1782), IV. 148. The dark intervals must be diminished, until the neighbouring rings become continuous, and are blended.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, VII. 6. Round the city stretch’d Their line continuous, massy as the wall Erst by the fearful Roman … raised.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xii. (1873), 320. In most cases the area inhabited by a species is continuous.
1879. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., vi. 228. If we light a match and observe its spectrum, we find that it is continuous—that is, from red through the whole gamut of colour to the visible limit of the violet.
1881. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., I. 6. Without describing a continuous line in space.
b. In unbroken connection with; joined continuously to; forming one mass with.
1692. Ray, Dissol. World, XI. v. (1732), 207. Anciently continuous with Malacca.
1700. S. Parker, Six Philos. Ess., 95. The Superficies whereto it was continuous, etc.
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, ii. 25. The mucous membrane of the eye is continuous with the skin.
† c. fig. Obs.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. iii. 252. They were so contiguous and near in kinred, they might not be made continuous (one flesh) in marriage.
2. Of immaterial things, actions, etc.: Uninterrupted in time, sequence, or essence; going on without interruption; connected, unbroken.
1751. Harris, Hermes, II. (1841), 187. Continuatives … consolidate sentences into one continuous whole.
1832. Nat. Philos., Electro-Magnet., xi. § 176. 60 (Useful Knowl. Soc.). The currents transmitted by perfect conductors are continuous; that is, their intensity is either constant, or varies insensibly during two consecutive instants.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Continuous service men, those seamen who, having entered for a period, on being paid off, are permitted to have leave, and return to the flag-ship at the port for general service.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. App. (1876), 700. A continuous siege of six months.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 131. The power of abstract study or continuous thought is very rare.
1878. Tait & Stewart, Unseen Univ., VII. § 215. Which will explain the continuous life of the universe as well as its continuous energy.
3. technically.
Continuous brake, a continuous series of carriage brakes controlled from one point, acting upon every carriage or wheel in a train. Continuous consonants, those which are capable of prolonged enunciation (opposed to explosive). Continuous function (Math.), a function that varies continuously, and whose differential coefficient therefore never becomes infinite. Continuous impost: see IMPOST. Continuous stem (Bot.), one without articulations. Continuous style, in Gothic Architecture, a style in which the mullions of a window are continued in the tracery, as distinguished from the geometrical style of earlier Gothic.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 379. There is also a tendency … throughout the Continuous style, to extend the ornamental stonework.
1850. Latham, Eng. Lang. (ed. 3), 144. Now b, p, t, etc. are explosive, f, v, etc. continuous.
1866. Treas. Bot., 325. A stem is said to be continuous which has no joints.
1883. Stubbs’ Mercantile Circ., 26 Sept., 862/2. The use of continuous brakes on their several lines [of railway].
