[f. L. truncāt-, ppl. stem of truncāre, f. truncus TRUNK.] trans. To shorten or diminish by cutting off a part; to cut short; to maim, mutilate. Also fig.
1486, 1572. [implied in TRUNCATED 1].
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Truncate, to cut shorter, to maim.
1755. Johnson, Dict., Pref. ¶ 70. The examples are too often injudiciously truncated.
1852. W. R. Williams, Relig. Progr., iii. (1854), 53. It wrongs man by truncating his nature of conscience and immortality.
1911. Athenæum, 16 Sept., 318/2. He … never wrote short stories, only truncated long ones.
b. In scientific and technical use: spec. in Cryst. to ‘cut off’ or replace (an edge or solid angle) by a plane face, esp. so as to make equal angles with the adjacent faces. Chiefly in pa. pple.: see TRUNCATED 2.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chem., I. 97. Pyramids … some of which … are obtuse as if truncated.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 393. If this gulf were … choked up,… so that new explosions … should truncate the cone once more.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 348/1. The faces of one hexagonal prism would truncate the lateral edges of the rhombohedron, while the faces of the other … would truncate its lateral solid angles.
Hence Truncating ppl. a., that truncates; spec. said of a plane that replaces an edge or solid angle.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 118. These new planes are named Truncating Planes, and the edges which they form with the other planes Truncating Edges.
1882. Ruskin, Bible of Amiens, iii. 95. These two truncating and guarding rivers.
