gradatory

plural gradatories

1. architectureA series of steps from a cloister into a church.

comparative more gradatory · superlative most gradatory

1. archaicProceeding step by step; gradual.

   Could we have seen [Macbeth's] crimes darkening on their progress […] could this gradatory apostasy have been shown us.

   May 31 1793, Anna Seward, letter to — Eccles

2. biologySuitable for walking, or able to walk (said of an animal, especially a bird, or of the limbs of an animal when adapted for walking on land).

   Under this name we group together a large number of very similar forms; or if dissimilar, forms connected by gradatory specimens

   1897, John van Denburgh, The Reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin