a. Obs. [f. as THEORIC a.1 + -AL: see -ICAL.]
a. = THEORIC a.1 1. (Often opp. to practical.)
1571. Digges, Pantom., Epist. *ij b. A Discourse Geometricall … containing sundry Theoricall and practicall propositions.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. viii. § 5 (1622), 292. Wee must … ioyne theorical and practicall vertues together.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., § 230. Theoricall or practicall phlebotomy.
1730. Malcolm (title), A new system of Arithmetick Theorical and Practical.
b. = THEORETICAL 3.
1594. Plat, Diuerse new Sorts Soyle, 26. I thinke that those … did not obteine this skil by any true theoricall imagination, but … they did fynde the same without any seeking.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess., Disc. O. Cromwell (1669), 76. I see you are a Pedant, and Platonical Statesman, a Theorical Common-wealths-man, an Utopian Dreamer.
1730. Malcolm, Syst. Arith., Pref. 6. The Theorical writers have treated Arithmetick as a Science.
c. Contemplative, speculative. rare.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 15. 281. Their cheife and eminent inward parts are defiled, whether we consider the theoricall part, that is, the minde and vnderstanding,… or the practicall facultie (included in the conscience).
1734. Waterland, Doctrine Holy Trinity, 513. That Three-fold Method of commenting which St. Jerome lays down; namely, the Historical, Tropological, and Theorical; or, in more familiar Terms, the literal, moral, and sublime.
