alligate

present singular third person alligates · participle present alligating · participle past alligated · past alligated

1. obsoletetransitiveTo bind or tie; to unite.

   Instincts alligated to their nature.

   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

   1 more example

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

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

2. To solve an arithmetic problem concerning proportions by means of alligation; to associate as having the same ratio.

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

   1859, J. Smith Homans, A Cyclopedia of Commerce and Commercial Navigation, page 27

1. not comparableHaving the same proportion or ratio.

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

   1938, Joseph A. Zappa, Civil Service Manual: Mental Tests for Federal Examinations, page 94