1. Nat. Hist. Nearly equal.
1787. trans. Linnæus’ Fam. Plants, 195. Florets all fertile. Proper one with petals five, heart-infected, subequal.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 199. Eyes subequal.
1880. Huxley, in Times, 25 Dec., 4/1. The earliest known equine animal possesses four complete sub-equal digits on the fore foot.
1897. Günther, in Mary Kingsley’s W. Africa, 704. Teeth small, subequal, with brown pointed tips.
2. Related as several numbers of which no one is as large as the sum of the rest.
In mod. Dicts.
Hence Subequally adv.; Subequality, the condition of being subequal.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 200. Fruit glabrous, subequally ribbed all round.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., 172. In the number of these bones [metacarpals] and their sub-equality of development man agrees with many Vertebrates above Fishes.
