Note: Officers have several rations, the number varying according to their rank or the number of their attendants.
2. Hence, a certain portion or fixed amount dealt out; an allowance; an allotment.
RATION
Ra"tion, v. t.
Defn: To supply with rations, as a regiment.
RATIONAL
Ra"tion*al, a. Etym: [L. rationalis: cf. F. rationnel. See Ratio,
Reason, and cf. Rationale.]
1. Relating to reason; not physical; mental. Moral philosophy was his chiefest end; for the rational, the natural, and mathematics . . . were but simple pastimes in comparison of the other. Sir T. North.
2. Having reason, or the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason or understanding; reasoning. It is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature. Law.
3. Agreeable to reason; not absurd, preposterous, extravagant, foolish, fanciful, or the like; wise; judicious; as, rational conduct; a rational man.
4. (Chem.)
Defn: Expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; — said of formulæ. See under Formula. Rational horizon. (Astron.) See Horizon, 2 (b). — Rational quantity (Alg. ), one that can be expressed without the use of a radical sign, or in extract parts of unity; — opposed to irrational or radical quantity. — Rational symptom (Med.), one elicited by the statements of the patient himself and not as the result of a physical examination.