tertiating

Verb

tertiate (third-person singular simple present tertiates, present participle tertiating, simple past and past participle tertiated)

1. To reduce by one third; especially, kill one third of (a group of people).
   • We are distinctly told that one cause of the terrible famine that has been — not decimating, but tertiating — the population of Rajpootana, has been the substitution of cotton for grain culture;1870, Frederick William Chesson, The Opium Trade Between India and China in Some of Its Present Aspects, page 19
2. (obsolete) To increase by half as much again; especially to increase the price in this way.
   • The beam made for triplicating or tertiating any weight small enough to be weighed by it.1757, The history of the R. Society of London, page 242
3. (obsolete, rare) To do or perform three times or for the third time.
   • When you consult vvith me about the Personage that should first, or second, or tertiate your business with the King, I must answer as Demosthenes did of Action; My Lord Thresorer, My Lord Thresorer , and so again.1672, Sir Henry Wotton, Izaak Walton, Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, page 559
4. To divide into three parts, especially to divide into thirds.
   • Had this question ever been scientifically treated, it would have been easy to see that this discord arises from the inappropriate position of the arithmetical termini which man, while in the stage of ante-grammatical inventiveness, fixed at ten (10) from the number of his fingers; that it is not...1867, S. J. Cassimati, The Greeks and Their Detractors, page 69
5. To examine, as the thickness of the metal at the muzzle of a gun; or, in general, to examine the thickness of, as ordnance, in order to ascertain its strength.

See all 10 meanings of tertiate