TRIBUTARY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Tributary

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/trˈɪbjətˌɛri/ Listen

noun

Tributary n. (pl. tributaries)

A ruler or state that pays tribute, or a stated sum, to a conquering power, for the purpose of securing peace and protection, or as an acknowledgment of submission, or for the purchase of security.

A stream or river flowing into a larger river or into a lake; an affluent.

adjective

Tributary adj.

Paying tribute to another, either from compulsion, as an acknowledgment of submission, or to secure protection, or for the purpose of purchasing peace. "(Julius) unto Rome made them tributary."

Hence, subject; subordinate; inferior. "He to grace his tributary gods."

Paid in tribute. "Tributary tears."

Yielding supplies of any kind; serving to form or make up, a greater object of the same kind, as a part, branch, etc.; contributing; as, the Ohio has many tributary streams, and is itself tributary to the Mississippi.

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Etymology of 'Tributary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tributary" Quotes from Famous Books

... done, they seek that altar, sumptuously Decked for the purpose, by the pagan train; Where their king swears, that he will pass the sea, With all his army, to his Moorish reign, And to King Charles will tributary be; If vanquished, young Rogero shall remain; And will observe the truce for evermore Upon the ...

— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... describe the apparatus of vision only so far as is necessary in order to subserve my leading object, which is the preservation and improvement of this sense, and the means of rendering it tributary to intellectual and moral culture. The eye, which is the organ of vision, is an optical instrument of the most perfect construction. It is surrounded by coats, which contain refracting mediums, called humors. There are three coats, called the sclerotic, the choroid, ...

— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew

... Canyon of Arizona, following the work of scenic photography. In a general way we had covered much of the country adjacent to our home, following our pack animals over ancient and little-used trails, climbing the walls of tributary canyons, dropping over the ledges with ropes when necessary, always in search of the interesting ...

— Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico • E. L. Kolb

... down the river, and an hour later landed at Fort Yukon, an abandoned military post, the most northerly point on the river, lying at the mouth of the Porcupine, the Yukon's most important tributary. ...

— The Boy Scouts on the Yukon • Ralph Victor

... or aptitude from an absurd prejudice of Chauvinism. Considering the length and breadth of her possessions she may well say that the world is her tributary, no wonder then that she avails herself of the hands and brains of every one who knows how to use them well, instead of confining herself exclusively to the merits of those ...

— My Friends the Savages - Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) • Giovanni Battista Cerruti

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