[ad. L. līneātiōn-em, n. of action f. līneāre: see LINEATE a.]
1. The action or process of drawing lines or marking with lines; an instance of this; also, a contour or outline; quasi-concr., a marking or line on the surface (e.g., of the skin).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. iii. (1495), 30. Angels haue noo matere nother lyneacions and shappe of body.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 21182. The vysage and the hand also, Vp-on wych Men may … Telle the condyciouns By dyvers lyneaciouns Wych ther be set.
a. 1450. Cov. Myst., xx. (Shaks. Soc.), 189. Of lynyacion that longyth to jematrye.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 197 b. Not ymagynynge in the deite ony corporall fygure or liniacyon.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 275. It is a … root, which by exsiccation hath contracted wrinkles and lineations.
1816. G. Colman, Br. Grins, Luminous Historian, Introd. iii. (1872), 304. Nature’s lineations plainly tell There’s room and room enough to act them well.
1892. F. Galton, Finger Prints, i. 5. The ridges, whose lineations appear in the finger print.
b. collect. A marking with lines; an arrangement or group of lines.
c. 1550. Sympathising Lover, in Evans, Old Ballads (1784), III. xxx. 226. Her countenaunce with her lynyacion.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 101. Conchites … differing in colour, lineation and valves.
a. 1728. Woodward, Hist. Fossils (1729), I. I. 32. There are in the horney Ground two white Lineations, attended with two of a pale Red.
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., I. Oxford, 392. Nothing upon it, but somewhat like a Chalice, and crooked Lineation.
1856. W. B. Carpenter, Microsc., § 339. 596. The peculiar lineation of the surface of nacre.
1884. Geikie, in Nature, 13 Nov., 30/2. Striated planes … covered with a fine parallel lineation.
2. A division into lines.
1853. Ecclesiologist, XIV. 431. There is no authority to assume one lineation [of a hymn] rather than another.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Nov., 1/3. The large initials … disturb the lineation of the verse.
