a. [f. FRACTION + -AL.] Of, pertaining to, or dealing with a fraction or fractions; comprising or constituting a fraction; of the nature of a fraction. Hence, Incomplete, partial, insignificant. Fractional currency (see quot.). Fractional distillation: see DISTILLATION 3.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., Preface. They seem to exclude the whole Length of the Towns, and to be the Distance from the End of one Town to the Beginning of the Next, not regarding the Fractional Parts of a Mile, but taking the lesser Integer, which in a well inhabited Road will come near the Matter.
a. 1806. C. J. Fox, Speech, Proceedings Respecing Lord Melville, Sp. 1815, VI. 584. The right honourable gentleman … has amused the House with an account of fractional sums of 8s. 6d. 14s. and 2s. and then turns short upon us, and asks how is it possible to pay all those trifling claims by drafts upon the bank?
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., II. ii. 32. The elements of war are often gradually accumulating before they settle into an open rupture. Like petty domestic quarrels, they seem insignificant and partial, till at length we are surprised that these fractional disputes close into one mighty and irreconcilable enmity.
1858. Mill, Liberty, iv. (1865), 45/1. He is the person most interested in his own well-being: the interest which any other person, except in cases of strong personal attachment, can have in it, is trifling, compared with that which he himself has; the interest which society has in him individually (except as to his conduct to others) is fractional, and altogether indirect: while, with respect to his own feelings and circumstances, the most ordinary man or woman has means of knowledge immeasurably surpassing those that can be possessed by any one else.
1861. Goschen, For. Exch., 102. They despatch their gold and sell the bills drawn against this gold to those who require to send funds abroad, realizing a fractional profit for the convenience which they afford.
1879. Webster, Supp., Fractional currency, small coin, or paper notes, in circulation, of less value than the monetary unit.
1892. Daily News, 20 Dec., 7/3. Messrs. B. decline to accept Messrs. M.’s fractional certificates in exchange for bonds.
Hence Fractionally adv., in a fractional manner or degree; by a fraction or fractions.
1883. Daily News, 7 Nov., 4/7. American prices were firm, but foreign Government stocks receded fractionally. Ibid. (1888), 4 Dec., 7/2. A surplus, applied to augment that dividend fractionally.
