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To obscure; to eclipse, as by superior splendor. Natural graces that extinguish art. Shak .

ing either behind another, as in the occultation of a star, or into its shadow, as in the eclipse of a satellite; -- opposed to emersion. Immersion lens, a microscopic objective of short focal distance designed to work with a drop of liquid, as oil, between the front lens and the slide, so that this lens is practically…

The entrance of the moon into the shadow of the earth in eclipses, the sun's entrance into a sign, etc.

riod of time, at the end of which, in the Julian calendar, the new and full moons and the eclipses recur on the same days of the week and month and year as in the previous period. It consists of 532 common years, being the least common multiple of the numbers of years in the cycle of the sun and the cycle of the moon.…

peration of obscuring; the state of being obscured; as, the obscuration of the moon in an eclipse. Sir J. Herschel.

ay attention to; to notice with care; to see; to perceive; to discover; as, to observe an eclipse; to observe the color or fashion of a dress; to observe the movements of an army.

To eclipse; to hide from sight.

sight by the intervention of some other of the heavenly bodies; -- applied especially to eclipses of stars and planets by the moon, and to the eclipses of satellites of planets by their primaries.

Banishment; exclusion; as, social ostracism. Public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great. Bacon. Sentenced to a perpetual ostracism from the . . . confidence, and honors, and emoluments of his country. A. Hamilton.

, or affecting, a part only; not general or universal; not total or entire; as, a partial eclipse of the moon. "Partial dissolutions of the earth." T. Burnet.

In part; not totally; as, partially true; the sun partially eclipsed. Sir T. Browne.

The shadow cast, in an eclipse, where the light is partly, but not wholly, cut off by the intervening body; the space of partial illumination between the umbra, or perfect shadow, on all sides, and the full light. Sir I. Newton.

rdinary, or out of the usual course of nature, from which omens are drawn; a portent; as, eclipses and meteors were anciently deemed prodigies. So many terrors, voices, prodigies, May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign. Milton.

mb of the sun which are seen to extend beyond the edge of the moon at the time of a solar eclipse. They may be discovered with the spectroscope on any clear day. Called also solar prominences. See Illust. in Append.

The quality or state of being total; as, the totality of an eclipse.

dium through which anything is viewed. As when the sun . . . from behind the moon, In dim eclipse. disastrous twilight sheds. Milton. The twilight of probability. Locke.

, or decreasing. This earthly moon, the Church, hath fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses. Bp. Hall.

e, the time necessary for such an act; a moment. I have not slept one wink. Shak. I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink. Donne.