Bible Dictionary
Dictionary
PERPET'UAL, adjective [Latin perpetuus, from perpes, perpetis; per and pes, from a root signifying to pass.]
1. Never ceasing; continuing forever in future time; destined to be eternal; as a perpetual covenant; a perpetual statute.
[Literally true with respect to the decrees of the Supreme Being.]
2. Continuing or continued without intermission; uninterrupted; as a perpetual stream; the perpetual action of the heart and arteries.
3. Permanent; fixed; not temporary; as a perpetual law or edict; perpetual love or amity, perpetual incense. Exodus 30:8.
4. Everlasting; endless.
Destructions are come to a perpetual end. Psalms 9:6.
5. During the legal dispensation. Exodus 29:9.
Perpetual curacy, is where all the tithes are appropriated and no vicarage is endowed.
Perpetual motion, motion that generates a power of continuing itself forever or indefinitely, by means of mechanism or some application of the force of gravity; not yet discovered, and probably impossible.
Perpetual screw, a screw that acts against the teeth of a wheel and continues its action without end.