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Webster 1913 Edition

Comet

Com′et

,
Noun.
[L.
cometes
,
cometa
, from Gr. [GREEK] comet, prop. long-haired, fr. [GREEK] to wear long hair, fr. [GREEK] hair, akin to L.
coma
: cf. F.
comète
.]
(Astron.)
A member of the solar system which usually moves in an elongated orbit, approaching very near to the sun in its perihelion, and receding to a very great distance from it at its aphelion. A comet commonly consists of three parts: the nucleus, the envelope, or coma, and the tail; but one or more of these parts is frequently wanting. See Illustration in Appendix.

Webster 1828 Edition

Comet

COMET

,
Noun.
An opake, spherical, solid body, like a planet, but accompanied with a train of light, performing revolutions about the sun, in an elliptical orbit, having the sun in one of its foci. In its approach to its perihelion, it becomes visible, and after passing its perihelion, it departs into remote regions and disappears. In popular language, comets are tailed, bearded or hairy, but these terms are taken from the appearance of the light which attends the, which, in different positions with respect to the sun, exhibits the form of a t ail or train, a beard, or a border of hair. When the comet is westward of the sun and rises or sets before it, the light appears in the morning like a train beginning at the body of the comet and extending westward and diverging in proportion to its extent. Thus the comet of 1769, [which I saw,] when it rose in the morning, presented a luminous train that extended nearly from the horizon to the meridian. When the comet and the sun are opposite, the earth being between them, the comet is, to the view, immersed in its train and the light appears around its body like a fringe or border of hair. From the train of a comet, this body has obtained the popular name of a blazing star.
Herschel observed several comets, which appeared to have no nucleus, but to be merely collections of vapor condensed about a center.

COMET

,
Noun.
A game at cards.

Definition 2024

Comet

Comet

See also: comet

English

Proper noun

Comet

  1. A reindeer of Santa Claus.
Translations

Etymology 2

Coined by software engineer Alex Russell in March 2006. After the Comet brand of cleaning products, as a pun on Ajax, which is also both the name of a web-programming technique and the name of a brand of cleaning products.

Proper noun

Comet

  1. (programming) A web application model in which a long-held HTTP request allows a web server to push data to a browser, without the browser explicitly requesting it.

comet

comet

See also: Comet

English

The comet Hale–Bopp in the night sky.

Noun

comet ‎(plural comets)

  1. (astronomy) A celestial body consisting mainly of ice, dust and gas in a (usually very eccentric) orbit around the Sun and having a "tail" of matter blown back from it by the solar wind as it approaches the Sun.
  2. A celestial phenomenon with the appearance given by the orbiting celestial body.
  3. Any of several species of hummingbird found in the Andes.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Catalan

Verb

comet

  1. third-person singular present indicative form of cometre
  2. second-person singular imperative form of cometre

Latin

Verb

cōmet

  1. third-person singular future active indicative of cōmō

Etymology

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