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That point in the orbit of the moon which is nearest to the earth; -- opposed to Ant: apogee. It is sometimes, but rarely, used of the nearest points of other orbits, as of a comet, a planet, etc. Called also epigee, epigeum.

That point of the orbit of a planet or comet which is nearest to the sun; -- opposed to Ant: aphelion.

ontaining, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator.

A celestial body which revolves about the sun in an orbit of a moderate degree of eccentricity. It is distinguished from a comet by the absence of a coma, and by having a less eccentric orbit. See Solar system.

Same as Postorbital.

otest against your votes. Denham. The conscience has power . . . to protest againts the exorbitancies of the passions. Shak.

The region of the skull, in the temporal fossa back of the orbit, where the great wing of the sphenoid, the temporal, the parietal, and the frontal hones approach each other.

, the position of the moon when one half of the disk is illuminated. -- Quadrature of an orbit (Astron.), a point in an orbit which is at either extremity of the latus rectum drawn through the empty focus of the orbit.

straight line joining the center of an attracting body with that of a body describing an orbit around it, as a line joining the sun and a planet or comet, or a planet and its satellite.

The act or practice of extorting or exacting by oppressive injustice; exorbitant greediness of gain. "The rapacity of some ages." Sprat.

To go back; to retrograde, as the apsis of a planet's orbit. [R.] Todhunter.

The motion of any body, as a planet or satellite, in a curved line or orbit, until it returns to the same point again, or to a point relatively the same; -- designated as the annual, anomalistic, nodical, sidereal, or tropical revolution, according as the point of return or completion has a fixed relation to the year,…

plete sentence. Periodic comet (Astron.), a comet that moves about the sun in an elliptic orbit; a comet that has been seen at two of its approaches to the sun. -- Periodic function (Math.), a function whose values recur at fixed intervals as the variable uniformly increases. The trigonomertic functions, as sin x, tan…

An exorbitant discount on a note. [Cant, U.S.]

ric showers, or star showers. These bodies, before encountering the earth, were moving in orbits closely allied to the orbits of comets. See Leonids, Perseids. (b) (Bot.) The American cowslip (Dodecatheon Meadia). See under Cowslip. -- Shooting stick (Print.), a tapering piece of wood or iron, used by printers to driv…

think 't no sin. To cozen him that would unjustly win. Shak. Enthralled By sin to foul, exorbitant desires. Milton.

osed of several fetal bones which become united the adult. See Alisphenoid, Basisphenoid, Orbitosphenoid, Presphenoid.

An orbit, as of a star; a socket. [R.] Shak. Armillary sphere, Crystalline sphere, Oblique sphere,. See under Armillary, Crystalline,. -- Doctrine of the sphere, applications of the principles of spherical trigonometry to the properties and relations of the circles of the sphere, and the problems connected with them,…

stickler for ceremony. The Tory or High-church were the greatest sticklers against the exorbitant proceedings of King James II. Swift.

e central body round which the earth and planets revolve, by which they are held in their orbits, and from which they receive light and heat. Its mean distance from the earth is about 92,500,000 miles, and its diameter about 860,000.