Continuous

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Continuous \Con*tin"u*ous\, a. [L. continuus, fr. continere to
     hold together. See {Continent}.]
     1. Without break, cessation, or interruption; without
        intervening space or time; uninterrupted; unbroken;
        continual; unceasing; constant; continued; protracted;
        extended; as, a continuous line of railroad; a continuous


        current of electricity.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              he can hear its continuous murmur.    --Longfellow.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Bot.) Not deviating or varying from uninformity; not
        interrupted; not joined or articulated.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Continuous brake} (Railroad), a brake which is attached to
        each car a train, and can be caused to operate in all the
        cars simultaneously from a point on any car or on the
        engine.
  
     {Continuous impost}. See {Impost}.
  
     Syn: {Continuous}, {Continual}.
  
     Usage: Continuous is the stronger word, and denotes that the
            continuity or union of parts is absolute and
            uninterrupted; as, a continuous sheet of ice; a
            continuous flow of water or of argument. So Daniel
            Webster speaks of "a continuous and unbroken strain of
            the martial airs of England." Continual, in most
            cases, marks a close and unbroken succession of
            things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak
            of continual showers, implying a repetition with
            occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as
            liable to continual calls, or as subject to continual
            applications for aid, etc. See {Constant}.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  continuous
       adj 1: continuing in time or space without interruption; "a
              continuous rearrangement of electrons in the solar
              atoms results in the emission of light"- James Jeans;
              "a continuous bout of illness lasting six months";
              "lived in continuous fear"; "a continuous row of
              warehouses"; "a continuous line has no gaps or breaks
              in it"; "moving midweek holidays to the nearest Monday
              or Friday allows uninterrupted work weeks" [syn: {uninterrupted}]
              [ant: {discontinuous}]
       2: of a function or curve; extending without break or
          irregularity [ant: {discontinuous}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  133 Moby Thesaurus words for "continuous":
     abiding, accordant, ageless, alike, articulated, automatic,
     balanced, catenated, ceaseless, chronological, coeternal,
     concatenated, connected, consecutive, consistent, consonant,
     constant, continual, continued, continuing, correspondent,
     cyclical, dateless, direct, durational, durative, endless, equable,
     equal, eternal, eterne, even, ever-being, ever-durable,
     ever-during, ever-recurring, everlasting, everliving, featureless,
     flat, frequent, gapless, haunting, homogeneous, immediate,
     immemorial, immutable, incessant, indefatigable, indestructible,
     infinite, interminable, invariable, joined, jointless, lasting,
     level, linked, measured, mechanical, methodic, monolithic,
     monotonous, never-ceasing, never-ending, nonstop, nonterminating,
     nonterminous, of a piece, olamic, ordered, orderly, perdurable,
     perennial, periodic, permanent, perpetual, persistent, reappearing,
     recurrent, recurring, regular, remaining, repetitive, returning,
     revenant, robotlike, round-the-clock, running, seamless,
     sempiternal, sequent, sequential, serial, serried, smooth, stable,
     staying, steadfast, steady, sticking, straight, sustained,
     systematic, temporal, thematic, thick-coming, tight, timeless,
     twenty-four-hour, ubiquitous, unbroken, unceasing, unchangeable,
     unchanged, unchanging, undeviating, undifferentiated,
     undiversified, undying, unending, uniform, unintermitted,
     unintermittent, unintermitting, uninterrupted, unrelieved,
     unremitting, unruffled, unstopped, unvaried, unvarying,
     without end