eclipse
Of astronomical or atmospheric bodies, to cause an eclipse.
Noun
- An alignment of astronomical objects whereby one object comes between the observer (or notional observer) and another object, thus obscuring the latter.
- 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.
- A seasonal state of plumage in some birds, notably ducks, adopted temporarily after the breeding season and characterised by a dull and scruffy appearance.
- Obscurity, decline, downfall.
- 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...
- As in the soft and sweet eclipse, When soul meets soul on lovers' lips. - 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, published 1839, page 340:
- 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...
Origin
From Middle English eclipse, from Old French eclipse, from Latin eclīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔκλειψις (ékleipsis, “eclipse”), from ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “to abandon, go missing, vanish”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and λείπω (leípō, “to leave behind”). Doublet of eclipsis.
Forms
Related
Derived
annular eclipse eclipse glasses eclipselike eclipse plumage lunar eclipse partial eclipse solar eclipse total eclipse
Verb
- Of astronomical or atmospheric bodies, to cause an eclipse.
- The Moon eclipsed the Sun.
- She turned to the casement on which the moon was shining; for the high wind had driven aside the clouds, whose huge dark masses threatened soon to eclipse the pale and dim circle of passing light. - 1834, L[etitia]...
- To overshadow; to be better or more noticeable than.
- For, till I see them here, by doubtful fear / My joy of liberty is half eclips'd. - c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
- [H]is ſupercilious glances grevv humbled, yea, his dazeling ſplendor (eclipſt in the ſetting [i.e., death] of his Maſter) becomes quickly darkned: […] - 1638, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of...
- I wish I could prevail on Ethel to come up to London, if it were but for the sake of eclipsing her rival. I will stand godmother to the town's admiration, and promise and vow three things in its name:—first, that she...
Synonyms: upstage
- To undergo eclipsis.