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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



115 words match “ORBIT”

BIELA'S COMET n.
ves around the sun in 6.6 years. The November meteors (Andromedes or Bielids) move in its orbit, and may be fragments of the comet.
BRONTOTHERIUM n.
lied to the rhinoceros, but the skull bears a pair of powerful horn cores in front of the orbits, and the fore feet were four-toed. See Illustration in Appendix.
BROW n.
The prominent ridge over the eye, with the hair that covers it, forming an arch above the orbit. And his arched brow, pulled o'er his eyes, With solemn proof proclaims him wise. Churchill.
CIRCUIT n.
The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution; as, the periodical circuit of the earth round the sun. Watts.
COMET n.
A member of the solar system which usually moves in an elongated orbit, approaching very near to the sun in its perihelion, and receding to a very great distance from it at its aphelion. A comet commonly consists of three parts: the nucleus, the envelope, or coma, and the tail; but one or more of these parts is frequen…
COUNTERSWAY n.
direction; an opposing influence. [Obs.] A countersway of restraint, curbing their wild exorbitance. Milton.
CYCLE n.
An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres. Milton.
DEAD a.
ut.), no wind at all. -- Dead center, or Dead point (Mach.), either of two points in the orbit of a crank, at which the crank and connecting rod lie a straight line. It corresponds to the end of a stroke; as, A and B are dead centers of the crank mechanism in which the crank C drives, or is driven by, the lever L. --…
DEAR a.
Marked by scarcity or dearth, and exorbitance of price; as, a dear year.
DESCENDING a.
planets descent toward the south. -- Descending node (Astron.), that point in a planet's orbit where it intersects the ecliptic in passing southward. -- Descending series (Math.), a series in which each term is numerically smaller than the preceding one; also, a series arranged according to descending powers of a qua…
DISORB v.
To throw out of the proper orbit; to unsphere. Shak.
ECCENTRIC a. 3 definitions
r departing from the center, or from the line of a circle; as, an eccentric or elliptical orbit; pertaining to deviation from the center or from true circular motion.
ECCENTRICITY n.
The ratio of the distance of the center of the orbit of a heavenly body from the center of the body round which it revolves to the semi-transverse axis of the orbit.
ECLIPTIC a.
an eclipse or to eclipses. Lunar ecliptic limit (Astron.), the space of 12º on the moon's orbit from the node, within which, if the moon happens to be at full, it will be eclipsed. -- Solar ecliptic limit, the space of 17º from the lunar node, within which, if a conjunction of the sun and moon occur, the sun will be e…
ELEMENT n.
of calculations depends, or general conclusions are based; as, the elements of a planet's orbit.
ELLIPSE n.
The elliptical orbit of a planet. The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheeled in her ellipse. Tennyson.
ELLIPTIC; ELLIPTICAL a.
e; having the form of an ellipse; oblong, with rounded ends. The planets move in elliptic orbits. Cheyne.
ELONGATE v.
art to, or be at, a distance; esp., to recede apparently from the sun, as a planet in its orbit. [R.]
EVECTION n.
An inequality of the moon's motion is its orbit to the attraction of the sun, by which the equation of the center is diminished at the syzygies, and increased at the quadratures by about 1º 20'.
EYE n.
n. In man, and the vertebrates generally, it is properly the movable ball or globe in the orbit, but the term often includes the adjacent parts. In most invertebrates the years are immovable ocelli, or compound eyes made up of numerous ocelli. See Ocellus. Description of illustration: a b Conjunctiva; c Cornea; d Scler…
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