TRIBUTARY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tributary

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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.

See images of 'Tributary'

Etymology of 'Tributary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Tributary" Quotes from Famous Books

... living in a compact mass—although a much smaller alien element was deemed a bar to annexation in the case of Poland. And what was more to the point, this allotment deprived Tyrol of an independent economic existence, cutting it off from the southern valley and making it tributary to Bavaria. Mr. Wilson, the public was credibly informed, "took this grave decision without having gone deeply into the matter, and he repents it bitterly. None the less, he can no longer ...

— The Inside Story Of The Peace Conference • Emile Joseph Dillon

... is eminently beautiful, looking down the lovely valley of Mink River, a tributary of the Musquash. The air is salubrious, and many of the inhabitants have attained great age, several having passed the allotted period of 'three-score years and ten' before succumbing to any of the various 'ills that flesh is heir to.' Widow Comfort Leevins died in 1836 AEt. LXXXVII. ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... the road between Belgrade and Seraievo it ceases to form the boundary of Servia and Bosnia, being entirely within the latter frontier. Thence ascending the valley of the Rogaschitza, a small stream tributary to the Drina, and crossing a ridge which parts the waters flowing into the Drina and into the Morava, he descended into the tract watered by the Morava, the national river of Servia; the first town in which was Ushitza, one of the ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 • Various

... mapped in Fig. 76, there is no perceptible throw at the surface, but various marks of violence are manifested in the fissuring of the hillside and the snapping of small trees. About a quarter of a mile from this point, the fault crosses a tributary stream, where the throw amounts to two feet, and the same distance farther on it meets the Chedrang river, the bed of which it crosses many times ...

— A Study of Recent Earthquakes • Charles Davison

... honest Jack across the foam Puts forth to meet the Gallic foe, His tributary tear for home He wipes away with a Yow-heave-ho! Man the braces, Take your places, Fill the tot and push the can; He's a lubber That would blubber When Britannia needs ...

— The Mayor of Troy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

More quotes...