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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



17 words match “ZENITH”

ZENITH n. 2 definitions
he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropped from the zenith, like a falling star. Milton.
ZENITHAL a.
Of or pertaining to the zenith. "The deep zenithal blue." Tyndall.
AMPHISCII; AMPHISCIANS n.
the north, and in the other to the south, according as the sun is south or north of their zenith.
ASCENDANT; ASCENDENT a.
Rising toward the zenith; above the horizon. The constellation . . . about that time ascendant. Browne.
AURORA n.
electrical origin. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the northern horizon; when reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms what is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipping needle points. Occasionall…
CARDINAL a.
circle, north, south east, and west. (b) (Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir. -- Cardinal signs (Astron.) Aries, Lidra, Cancer, and Capricorn. -- Cardinal teeth (Zoöl.), the central teeth of bivalve shell. See Bivalve. -- Cardinal veins (Anat.), the veins in vertebrate embryos, which ru…
DISTANCE n.
vens of a heavenly body from the north pole. It is the complement of the declination. -- Zenith distance (Astron.), the arc on the heavens from a heavenly body to the zenith of the observer. It is the complement of the altitude. -- To keep one's distance, to stand aloof; to refrain from familiarity. If a man makes ke…
FROMWARD; FROMWARDS prep.
A way from; -- the contrary of toward. [Obs.] Towards or fromwards the zenith. Cheyne.
FROSTBOW n.
unlight from ice crystals floating in the air; the parhelic circle whose center is at the zenith.
HIGH a.
line, or surface; having altitude; lifted up; raised or extended in the direction of the zenith; lofty; tall; as, a high mountain, tower, tree; the sun is high.
MERIDIAN n.
A great circle of the sphere passing through the poles of the heavens and the zenith of a given place. It is crossed by the sun at midday.
NADIR n.
That point of the heavens, or lower hemisphere, directly opposite the zenith; the inferior pole of the horizon; the point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where we stand.
OBLIQUE a.
arration. See Oblique speech. -- Oblique planes (Dialing), planes which decline from the zenith, or incline toward the horizon. -- Oblique sailing (Naut.), the movement of a ship when she sails upon some rhumb between the four cardinal points, making an oblique angle with the meridian. -- Oblique speech (Rhet.), spe…
OVERHEAD adv.
bove; in or attached to the ceiling or roof; in the story or upon the floor above; in the zenith. While overhead the moon Sits arbitress. Milton.
PERPENDICULAR a.
Exactly upright or vertical; pointing to the zenith; at right angles to the plane of the horizon; extending in a right line from any point toward the center of the earth.
SECTOR n.
s of declination too great for the compass of a micrometer. When it is used for measuring zenith distances of stars, it is called a zenith sector. Dip sector, an instrument used for measuring the dip of the horizon. -- Sector of a sphere, or Spherical sector, the solid generated by the revolution of the sector of a ci…
VERTICAL a. 2 definitions
ing to the vertex; situated at the vertex, or highest point; directly overhead, or in the zenith; perpendicularly above one. Charity . . . is the vertical top of all religion. Jer. Taylor.