资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Eclipse \E*clipse"\, n. [F. ['e]clipse, L. eclipsis, fr. Gr. ?,
   prop., a forsaking, failing, fr. ? to leave out, forsake; ?
   out + ? to leave. See {Ex-}, and {Loan}.]
   1. (Astron.) An interception or obscuration of the light of
      the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention
      of some other body, either between it and the eye, or
      between the luminous body and that illuminated by it. A
      lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the
      earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon coming
      between the sun and the observer. A satellite is eclipsed
      by entering the shadow of its primary. The obscuration of
      a planet or star by the moon or a planet, though of the
      nature of an eclipse, is called an occultation. The
      eclipse of a small portion of the sun by Mercury or Venus
      is called a transit of the planet.

   Note: In ancient times, eclipses were, and among
         unenlightened people they still are, superstitiously
         regarded as forerunners of evil fortune, a sentiment of
         which occasional use is made in literature.

               That fatal and perfidious bark, Built in the
               eclipse, and rigged with curses dark. --Milton.

   2. The loss, usually temporary or partial, of light,
      brilliancy, luster, honor, consciousness, etc.;
      obscuration; gloom; darkness.

            All the posterity of our fist parents suffered a
            perpetual eclipse of spiritual life.  --Sir W.
                                                  Raleigh.

            As in the soft and sweet eclipse, When soul meets
            soul on lovers' lips.                 --Shelley.

   {Annular eclipse}. (Astron.) See under {Annular}.

   {Cycle of eclipses}. See under {Cycle}.

Cycle \Cy"cle\ (s?"k'l), n. [F. ycle, LL. cyclus, fr. Gr.
   ky`klos ring or circle, cycle; akin to Skr. cakra wheel,
   circle. See {Wheel}.]
   1. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the
      celestial spheres. --Milton.

   2. An interval of time in which a certain succession of
      events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again
      and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a
      periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of
      something peculiar; as, the cycle of the seasons, or of
      the year.

            Wages . . . bear a full proportion . . . to the
            medium of provision during the last bad cycle of
            twenty years.                         --Burke.

   3. An age; a long period of time.

            Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
                                                  --Tennyson.

   4. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar. [Obs.]

            We . . . present our gardeners with a complete cycle
            of what is requisite to be done throughout every
            month of the year.                    --Evelyn.

   5. The circle of subjects connected with the exploits of the
      hero or heroes of some particular period which have served
      as a popular theme for poetry, as the legend of Arthur and
      the knights of the Round Table, and that of Charlemagne
      and his paladins.

   6. (Bot.) One entire round in a circle or a spire; as, a
      cycle or set of leaves. --Gray.

   7. A bicycle or tricycle, or other light velocipede.

   {Calippic cycle}, a period of 76 years, or four Metonic
      cycles; -- so called from Calippus, who proposed it as an
      improvement on the Metonic cycle.

   {Cycle of eclipses}, a period of about 6,586 days, the time
      of revolution of the moon's node; -- called {Saros} by the
      Chaldeans.