Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Methodic \Me*thod"ic\, Methodical \Me*thod"ic*al\, a. [L. methodicus, Gr. ?: cf. F. m['e]thodique.]
Arranged with regard to method; disposed in a suitable manner, or in a manner to illustrate a subject, or to facilitate practical observation; well-ordered; as, the methodical arrangement of arguments; a methodical treatise. [WordNet sense 2] ``Methodical regularity.''
--Addison.Proceeding with regard to method; characterized by method or orderliness; systematic; as, a methodical investigation. [WordNet sense 1] ``Aristotle, strict, methodic, and orderly.''
--Harris.Of or pertaining to the ancient school of physicians called methodists.
--Johnson. [1913 Webster] -- Me*thod"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Me*thod"ic*al*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. 1 In an organized manner; proceeding with regard to method; systematic. 2 Arranged with regard to method; disposed in a suitable manner, or in a manner to illustrate a subject, or to facilitate practical observation.
WordNet
adj. characterized by method and orderliness; "a methodical scholar"
Usage examples of "methodical".
Simla were crack shots and though he had never come across a less likely markswoman than the so correct Mademoiselle Pitiot, Joe was methodical.
I can see no more reason to doubt this, than that man can improve the fleetness of his greyhounds by careful and methodical selection, or by that unconscious selection which results from each man trying to keep the best dogs without any thought of modifying the breed.
As he goes about his methodical preparations, reconnoitering the pitifully inadequate accommodations of his shabby hotel, Ludvik is intensely conscious of the parodistic quality of all his moves and gestures.
Valerie, more than twenty since his daughter Reine had joined her, and he still ever lived on in his methodical, punctual manner, amid the downfall of his existence.
This is how the Stepping Stone approach crystallized into a methodical system involving roster improvement.
A viewer of such pictures would take a battle to be a thing as orderly and trim and methodical as a Game of Squares, or Shahi, played on a flat board in a well-lighted, comfortable room.
It was a good two hours of methodical sloughing ahead before he came in sight of the sentinel pine Art had told him about.
The names of towns and districts may lend themselves to pedantry of this kind, but Kosznewski, the methodical starosty official, is no help in deciphering Tulla, more a something than a girl.
Then, resting back in his chair, Alfredo Morales began to speak in a quiet, methodical tone.
If anything, the Corbanites, despite their very visible and understandable anger, seemed awkward and amateurish, unorganized in their opposition, while the Bonita Vistans seemed prepared, methodical, and capable.
In addition, von Diicker observed many dozens of crania of Hipparion and antelope showing methodical removal of the upper jaw in order to extract the brain.
Not only the impulsive Bahamians, but also the more methodical Americans, with their spotter planes, their cutters, and their computers.
He reached the grillroom, ordered his usual breakfast in a methodical manner, and waited in reflective thought.
They rarely spoke as they went about the methodical and exacting work of joining each monofilament to the optical data network of the subprocessor.
The blanket smelled of stale traffic, the corroborating truth a laboratory of research onanists might produce in their methodical throbbing and desperation for pictures.