eclipse
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪˈklɪps/
ipa: /iˈklɪps/
rhymes: -ɪps
Forms: form: eclipses
Etymology: From Old French eclipse, from Latin eclīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔκλειψις (ékleipsis, “eclipse”), from ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “I abandon, go missing, vanish”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and λείπω (leípō, “I leave behind”). Doublet of eclipsis.
Senses: topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: An alignment of astronomical objects whereby one object comes between the observer (or notional observer) and another object, thus obscuring the latter.
glosses: Especially, an alignment whereby a planetary object (for example, the Moon) comes between the Sun and another planetary object (for example, the Earth), resulting in a shadow being cast by the middle planetary object onto the other planetary object.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: A seasonal state of plumage in some birds, notably ducks, adopted temporarily after the breeding season and characterised by a dull and scruffy appearance.
examples: text: a. 1618, Walter Raleigh, quoted in Eclipse, entry in 1805, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, Volume 2, unnumbered page,
All the posterity of our first parents suffered a perpetual eclipse of spiritual life.
text: As in the soft and sweet eclipse,
 When soul meets soul on lovers' lips.
ref: 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, published 1839, page 340:
text: Nor were the wool prospects much better. The pastoral industry, which had weathered the severe depression of the early forties by recourse to boiling down the sheep for their tallow, and was now firmly re-established as the staple industry of the colony, was threatened once more with eclipse.
ref: 1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House is Built, Chapter VIII, Section ii:
text: Aubrey was rapturous. All her other playthings went into eclipse and the doings of the Geezenstacks occupied most of her waking thoughts.
ref: 1943, Fredric Brown, The Geezenstacks:
text: From the standpoint of the Buddhist historian, it would be futile to attempt to distinguish, on the basis of doctrine, between the T’ien-t’ai Buddhism of the Sui and the various T’ang schools, since they share common ideals. Yet despite the “T’ang” character of the T’ien-t’ai school, it entered an almost total eclipse during the first half of the T’ang dynasty.
ref: 1973, Stanley Weinstein, “Imperial Patronage in the Formation of T’ang Buddhism”, in Arthur F. Wright, Denis Twitchett, editors, Perspectives on the T’ang, Yale University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 289–290; republished as “Imperial Patronage in the Formation of T’ang Buddhism”, in Paul W. Kroll, editor, Critical Readings on Tang China, volume 4, Brill Publishers, 2019, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1646:
glosses: Obscurity, decline, downfall.
Derived terms: annular eclipse
eclipse glasses
eclipselike
eclipse plumage
lunar eclipse
partial eclipse
solar eclipse
total eclipse
Related terms: word: eclipsis
word: ecliptic
word: ecliptical
english: solar eclipse symbol
translation: solar eclipse symbol
word: 🝵
english: lunar eclipse symbol
translation: lunar eclipse symbol
word: 🝶
word: occultation
word: syzygy