EQUINOCTIAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Equinoctial

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

adjective

Equinoctial adj.

1.

Pertaining to an equinox, or the equinoxes, or to the time of equal day and night; as, the equinoctial line.

2.

Pertaining to the regions or climate of the equinoctial line or equator; in or near that line; as, equinoctial heat; an equinoctial sun.

3.

Pertaining to the time when the sun enters the equinoctial points; as, an equinoctial gale or storm, that is, one happening at or near the time of the equinox, in any part of the world.

Equinoctial colure (Astron.), the meridian passing through the equinoctial points.

Equinoctial line (Astron.), the celestial equator; so called because when the sun is on it, the nights and days are of equal length in all parts of the world. See Equator. "Thrice the equinoctial line He circled."

Equinoctial points (Astron.), the two points where the celestial and ecliptic intersect each other; the one being in the first point of Aries, the other in the first point of Libra.

Equinoctial time (Astron.) reckoned in any year from the instant when the mean sun is at the mean vernal equinoctial point.

noun

Equinoctial n. The equinoctial line.

See images of 'Equinoctial'

Etymology of 'Equinoctial'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Equinoctial" Quotes from Famous Books

... those white phantasmagoria which, at the approach of equinoctial days, mark the coming of the winds. Over the rim of the sea a bright cloud gently pushes up its head. It rises; and others rise with it, to right and left—slowly at first; then more swiftly. All are brilliantly white and flocculent, ...

— Chita: A Memory of Last Island • Lafcadio Hearn

... preparations had been made to receive him. Suspecting nothing, Hawkins with his four consorts sailed, as before, in October 1567. The start was ominous. He was caught and badly knocked about by an equinoctial in the Bay of Biscay. He lost his boats. The Jesus strained her timbers and leaked, and he so little liked the look of things that he even thought of turning back and giving up the expedition for the season. However, the weather mended. They put themselves ...

— English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century - Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4 • James Anthony Froude

... stormy day," continued he. "The equinoctial gale blew violently, and scattered the yellow leaves of Liberty Tree all along the street. Mr. Oliver's wig was dripping with water-drops; and he probably looked haggard, disconsolate, and humbled to the earth. ...

— Grandfather's Chair • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... cleaning had affected the bolts of the keel: in the neighborhood of the Balearic Isles the sides had been strained and had opened; and, as the plating in those days was not of sheet iron, the vessel had sprung a leak. A violent equinoctial gale had come up, which had first staved in a grating and a porthole on the larboard side, and damaged the foretop-gallant-shrouds; in consequence of these injuries, the Orion had run ...

— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... returning flight, The longer sunshine, and the shorter night, Arcturus' beams, and Corvus' glitt'ring rays, Diffuse a promise of the genial days. Yon muddy remnant of the winter snow Shrinks humbly in the equinoctial glow, Whilst in the fields precocious grass-blades peep Above the earth so lately wrapt in sleep. What sweet, elusive odor fills the soil, To rouse the farmer to his yearly toil! Though thick the clouds, and bare the maple bough, With what gay song he guides the cumbrous plough! In him there ...

— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com