Also 7 æquate. [f. L. æquāt- ppl. stem of æquā-re: see prec.]
† 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 Epagomenæ 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. Sir J. 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. Ibid. (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.
1840. Gladstone, Ch. Princ., 399. The danger of confounding true and false by equating them [forms of religion] all.
a. 1859. De Quincey, Philos. Herod., Wks. 1862, VIII. 211. Three generations were equated to a century.
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. Rhys, Celtic Britain, 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 Equated ppl. a., Equating vbl. sb.
1633. H. Gellibrand, in T. James, Voy., R ij. The Æquated Anomaly of the [symbol] 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.
