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Leap year   /lip jɪr/   Listen
noun
Leap year  n.  Bissextile; a year containing 366 days; every fourth year which leaps over a day more than a common year, giving to February twenty-nine days. See Bissextile. Note: Every year whose number is divisible by four without a remainder is a leap year, excepting the full centuries, which, to be leap years, must be divisible by 400 without a remainder. If not so divisible they are common years. 1900, therefore, is not a leap year, but 2000 is.



Year  n.  
1.
The time of the apparent revolution of the sun trough the ecliptic; the period occupied by the earth in making its revolution around the sun, called the astronomical year; also, a period more or less nearly agreeing with this, adopted by various nations as a measure of time, and called the civil year; as, the common lunar year of 354 days, still in use among the Mohammedans; the year of 360 days, etc. In common usage, the year consists of 365 days, and every fourth year (called bissextile, or leap year) of 366 days, a day being added to February on that year, on account of the excess above 365 days (see Bissextile). "Of twenty year of age he was, I guess." Note: The civil, or legal, year, in England, formerly commenced on the 25th of March. This practice continued throughout the British dominions till the year 1752.
2.
The time in which any planet completes a revolution about the sun; as, the year of Jupiter or of Saturn.
3.
pl. Age, or old age; as, a man in years.
Anomalistic year, the time of the earth's revolution from perihelion to perihelion again, which is 365 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 48 seconds.
A year's mind (Eccl.), a commemoration of a deceased person, as by a Mass, a year after his death. Cf. A month's mind, under Month.
Bissextile year. See Bissextile.
Canicular year. See under Canicular.
Civil year, the year adopted by any nation for the computation of time.
Common lunar year, the period of 12 lunar months, or 354 days.
Common year, each year of 365 days, as distinguished from leap year.
Embolismic year, or Intercalary lunar year, the period of 13 lunar months, or 384 days.
Fiscal year (Com.), the year by which accounts are reckoned, or the year between one annual time of settlement, or balancing of accounts, and another.
Great year. See Platonic year, under Platonic.
Gregorian year, Julian year. See under Gregorian, and Julian.
Leap year. See Leap year, in the Vocabulary.
Lunar astronomical year, the period of 12 lunar synodical months, or 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 36 seconds.
Lunisolar year. See under Lunisolar.
Periodical year. See Anomalistic year, above.
Platonic year, Sabbatical year. See under Platonic, and Sabbatical.
Sidereal year, the time in which the sun, departing from any fixed star, returns to the same. This is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.3 seconds.
Tropical year. See under Tropical.
Year and a day (O. Eng. Law), a time to be allowed for an act or an event, in order that an entire year might be secured beyond all question.
Year of grace, any year of the Christian era; Anno Domini; A. D. or a. d.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Leap year" Quotes from Famous Books



... Mrs. Bergmann, "we will take no notice of leap year, and we will count 365 days in ...
— Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches • Maurice Baring

... that arranged the calendar, must have had influential relations in England who urged on him the need for making February the shortest month of the year. Let us be grateful to His Holiness that he was so persuaded. He was a little obstinate about Leap Year; a more imaginative pontiff would have given the extra day to April; but he was amenable enough for a man who only had his relations' word for it. Every first of March I raise my glass to Gregory. Even as a boy I used to drink one of his powders ...
— Not that it Matters • A. A. Milne

... leap being unfortunate," observed Middlemore, all eyes fixed upon him in expectation of what was to follow, "for Julia D'Egville can affirm that, while paying his court to her, he had not chosen a leap year." ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... had a suspicion that she might be. Chilminster had met very few unmarried American girls, but like most Englishmen, he was aware of their capacity for resolution in most matters. Then, again, it was leap year. Suppose—— For a little while he did a ...
— Golden Stories - A Selection of the Best Fiction by the Foremost Writers • Various

... convention held in June or July of the presidential year. At about the same time the various parties in each state nominate the quota of presidential electors to which the state is entitled. The people vote on these electors on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November of each leap year. In each state the electors receiving a plurality assemble at the state capitol on the second Monday in January following their election, and vote directly for President and Vice President. These votes are then certified and sent to the President of the Senate. On the ...
— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson

... she remarked, "you needn't be ashamed of having spoken first. You have only used the ancient privilege of the sex. This is Leap Year." ...
— Little Novels • Wilkie Collins

... we have seen to that. The last year of this century will not be counted as a leap year. It is fortunate that the difference is one of eleven days, for as that is the number which is added every year to the epact our epacts are almost the same. As to the celebration of Easter, that is a different question. ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... try the experiment. Leaving the surgeon to caution Mrs. Fairbank on the subject of Leap Year, I went to the ...
— The Lock And Key Library - Classic Mystery And Detective Stories, Modern English • Various



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