PROXIMATE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Proximate

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/prˈɑksəmət/ Listen

adjective

Proximate adj. Nearest; next immediately preceding or following. "Proximate ancestors." "The proximate natural causes of it (the deluge)."

Proximate analysis (Chem.), an analysis which determines the proximate principles of any substance, as contrasted with an ultimate analysis.

Proximate cause.

(a)

A cause which immediately precedes and produces the effect, as distinguished from the remote, mediate, or predisposing cause.

(b)

That which in ordinary natural sequence produces a specific result, no independent disturbing agencies intervening.

Proximate principle (Physiol. Chem.), one of a class of bodies existing ready formed in animal and vegetable tissues, and separable by chemical analysis, as albumin, sugar, collagen, fat, etc.

Synonyms: Nearest; next; closest; immediate; direct.

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Etymology of 'Proximate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Proximate" Quotes from Famous Books

... excellent "Story of the Pilgrim Fathers," so often referred to herein, to find him sharply arraigning "those members of the Leyden church who were responsible for the fitting of the SPEEDWELL," alleging that "they were the proximate causes of most of the troubles on the voyage [of the MAY-FLOWER] out; and of many of the deaths at Plymouth in New England in the course of the following Spring; for they overmasted the vessel, and by so doing strained ...

— The Mayflower and Her Log, Complete • Azel Ames

... account for the speedy decay of dead animal substances, and for the methods whereby this decay is retarded or prevented. In organised substances, the chemical atoms combine in a very complex but unstable way; several such atoms group together to form a proximate principle, such as gluten, albumen, fibrin, &c.; and several of these combine to form a complete organic substance. The chemical rank-and-file, so to speak, form a battalion, and two or more battalions form the chemical army. But it is a law in chemistry, ...

— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 460 - Volume 18, New Series, October 23, 1852 • Various

... be looking too far ahead. If we had to choose some one piece of more proximate knowledge which we would more especially like to acquire, I suppose we should ask for the secret of interracial sterility. Nothing has yet been discovered to remove the grave difficulty, by which Huxley in particular was so much oppressed, that among the many varieties produced under domestication—which ...

— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel

... time the bereaved Farfrae had learnt the, at least, proximate cause of Lucetta's illness and death, and his first impulse was naturally enough to wreak vengeance in the name of the law upon the perpetrators of the mischief. He resolved to wait till the funeral was over ere he moved in the matter. The time having come he reflected. Disastrous as the ...

— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy

... malevolent giant is not so bad a God as an insane child. And Browning means that pessimism is what we should naturally expect from so rudimentary an intellect as Caliban's, which judges the whole order of the universe from proximate and superficial evidences. ...

— Robert Browning: How To Know Him • William Lyon Phelps

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