American Dictionary of the English Language

Dictionary Search

Interval


IN'TERVAL, noun [Latin intervallum; inter and vallum, a wall, or vallus, a stake.

1. A space between things; a void space intervening between any two objects; as an interval between two columns, between two pickets or palisades, between two houses or walls, or between two mountains or hills.

2. Space of time between any two points or events; as the interval between the death of Charles I. of England and the accession of Charles II.' the interval between two wars. Hence we say, an interval of peace.

3. The space of time between two paroxysms of disease, pain or delirium; remission; as an interval of ease, of peace, of reason.

4. The distance between two given sounds in music, or the difference in point of gravity or acuteness.

5. A tract of low or plain ground between hills, or along the banks of rivers, usually alluvial land enriched by the overflowings of rivers, or by fertilizing deposits of earth from the adjacent hills. [De. Belknap writes this intervale; I think improperly.]