alligate

English

Etymology

From Latin alligatus (“tied, bound”), past participle of alligo (“I bind”), from ad + ligo (“I bind”). Doublet of alloy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈælɪɡeɪt/

Verb

alligate (third-person singular simple present alligates, present participle alligating, simple past and past participle alligated)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To bind or tie; to unite.
   • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC:

     Instincts alligated to their nature.

   • 1887, S. F. Walker, The Ruins Revisited, and the World-story Retold, page 38:

     Poor Blind Tom, the very tail end of the long decadency, has a gift that alligates him to the angels.

2. To solve an arithmetic problem concerning proportions by means of alligation; to associate as having the same ratio.
   • 1859, J. Smith Homans, A Cyclopedia of Commerce and Commercial Navigation, page 27:

     Link or alligate the branches, so as one greater and another less than the root may be linked or yoked together.

Adjective

alligate (not comparable)

1. Having the same proportion or ratio.
   • 1938, Joseph A. Zappa, Civil Service Manual: Mental Tests for Federal Examinations, page 94:

     The proportional parts are then found by reducing the alligate parts to the same denominator , dropping the denominators and writing the numerators .

Anagrams

• taillage, talliage, telalgia

Latin

Verb

alligāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of alligō