Ul"ti*mate (?), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Ultimated (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Ultimating.]
1. To come or bring
to an end; to eventuate; to end. [R.]
2. To
come or bring into use or practice. [R.]
Ul"ti*mate (?), a. [LL.
ultimatus last, extreme, fr. L. ultimare to come to an end, fr. ultimus the farthest, last, superl. from the same source as ulterior. See Ulterior, and cf. Ultimatum.]
1. Farthest; most remote in space or time; extreme; last; final.
My harbor, and my ultimate repose.
Milton.
Many actions apt
to procure fame are not
conductive to this our ultimate happiness.
Addison.
2. Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that
precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we can
not rationally contradict.
Coleridge.
3. Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental; as, an ultimate constituent of matter.
Ultimate analysis
(Chem.), organic analysis. See under Organic. --
Ultimate belief.
See under Belief. -- Ultimate ratio (Math.), the limiting value of a ratio, or that toward which a series tends, and which it does
not pass.
Syn. -- Final; conclusive. See Final.
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