a. (sb.) [f. L. trimestris (see prec.) + -AL.] Consisting of or containing three months; occurring or appearing every three months. b. as sb. A quarterly publication.
1693. J. Beaumont, On Burnet’s Th. Earth, II. 96. By others it’s made Trimestrial, and by others to consist of Six Months.
1824. Medwin, Convers. Byron, I. 171. People who read nothing but these trimestrials.
1855. Tait’s Mag., XXII. 630. The complaint of a trimestrial contemporary.
1865. Maffei, Brigand Life, I. 81. He levied a regular trimestrial tax upon all cattle-dealers.
Also (less correctly) Trimestral a.
1824. Bp. Blomfield, in Mem. (1863), I. iv. 101. I have been busier for the last three months than ever I was before for any trimestral portion of my life.
1829. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 52. The fiend is up again and doing, till Vishnu array himself in trimestral or monthly incarnation, to return him to his deep. [Referring to the Quarterly Review.]
1881. Mrs. Lynn Linton, My Love, xii. Their trimestral visit … had to be paid.
