a. [f. prec.: see -ORY2.]
† 1. Characterized by transferring from one to another. Obs. rare.
1727. Swift, Art Polit. Lying, ¶ 6, Wks. 1755, III. I. 117. He divides Political Lyes into several species…. The translatory is a lye, that transfers the merit of a man’s good action to another who is [etc.].
2. Of or pertaining to physical translation; = TRANSLATIONAL b.
1849. Noad, Electricity (ed. 3), 267. The negative tension of an insulated metal is sensibly augmented by giving a translatory motion to the gas which attacks its surface.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxix. 403. Owing to the quicker translatory movement. Ibid. (1881), Floating Matter of Air, ii. 60. The Bacteria lost their translatory power, fell to the bottom, and left the liquid … clear.
