Ŏs'eu-la-to-ry1, a.
(50), a. [Fr. osculatoire.] 1. Of, or pertaining to, kissing; kissing.
The two ladies went through the osculatory ceremony which they were in the habit of performing. Thackeray.
Sense 2. (Geom.) Pertaining to, or having the properties of, an osculatrix; capable of osculation; as, a circle may be osculatory with a curve at a given point.
Osculatory circle (Geom.), a circle having the same curvature as that of a given curve at the point of contact, or whose radius is the radius of curvature of the curve at that point.—Osculatory plane to a curve of double curvature, a plane which passes through three successive points of the curve.—Osculatory sphere to a line of double curvature, a sphere passing through four consecutive points of the curve. Math. Dict.