a. rare. [ad. med.L. ternāl-is, f. tern-ī distrib. numeral, ‘three by three,’ f. ter thrice: see -AL. So OF. ternal (15th c. in Godef.).]

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  1.  Consisting of three; threefold, triple.

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1599.  A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 193/1. Madefye therin a ternall reduplicated cloth [explained by ‘trebled’ in ‘The Expositione of such wordes as are in this Booke derived of the Latines’].

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1657.  Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 652. The Oyl … by its ternal maceration … acquires more vertue.

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a. 1680.  Charnock, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xcix. 3. A ternal repetition of his holiness.

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  2.  Third (of each group of three); = TERNARY 3.

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1804.  Southey, in Ann. Rev., II. 526. [Of Lybeaus Desconus] The four ternal lines rhyming … and also the two first couplets. [The stanzas rhyme: aad, aad, bbd, ccd.]

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