Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Cycle

Cy′cle

(s?′k’l)
,
Noun.
[F.
ycle
, LL.
cyclus
, fr. Gr.
κύκλοσ
ring or circle, cycle; akin to Skr.
cakra
wheel, circle. See
Wheel
.]
1.
An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
Milton.
2.
An interval of time in which a certain succession of events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of something peculiar;
as, the
cycle
of the seasons, or of the year
.
Wages . . . bear a full proportion . . . to the medium of provision during the last bad
cycle
of twenty years.
Burke.
3.
An age; a long period of time.
Better fifty years of Europe than a
cycle
of Cathay.
Tennyson.
4.
An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
[Obs.]
We . . . present our gardeners with a complete
cycle
of what is requisite to be done throughout every month of the year.
Evelyn.
5.
The circle of subjects connected with the exploits of the hero or heroes of some particular period which have served as a popular theme for poetry, as the legend of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, and that of Charlemagne and his paladins.
6.
(Bot.)
One entire round in a circle or a spire;
as, a
cycle
or set of leaves
.
Gray.
7.
A bicycle or tricycle, or other light velocipede.
Calippic cycle
,
a period of 76 years, or four Metonic cycles; – so called from Calippus, who proposed it as an improvement on the Metonic cycle.
–
Cycle of eclipses
,
a period of about 6,586 days, the time of revolution of the moon’s node; – called
Saros
by the Chaldeans.
–
Cycle of indiction
,
a period of 15 years, employed in Roman and ecclesiastical chronology, not founded on any astronomical period, but having reference to certain judicial acts which took place at stated epochs under the Greek emperors.
–
Cycle of the moon
, or
Metonic cycle
,
a period of 19 years, after the lapse of which the new and full moon returns to the same day of the year; – so called from Meton, who first proposed it.
–
Cycle of the sun
,
Solar cycle
,
a period of 28 years, at the end of which time the days of the month return to the same days of the week. The dominical or Sunday letter follows the same order; hence the
solar cycle
is also called the
cycle of the Sunday letter
. In the Gregorian calendar the solar cycle is in general interrupted at the end of the century.

Cy′cle

(s?′k’l)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Cycled
.
(-k’ld)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Cycling
(-kl[GREEK]ng)
.]
1.
To pass through a cycle{2} of changes; to recur in cycles.
Tennyson.
Darwin.
2.
To ride a bicycle, tricycle, or other form of cycle.

Webster 1828 Edition

Cycle

CYCLE

,
Noun.
[Gr. L., an orb or circle.]
1.
In chronology, a period or series of numbers, which regularly proceed from first to last, and then return to the first, in a perpetual circle. Hence,
2.
The cycle of the moon, or golden number, or Metonic cycle, so called from its inventor Meton, is a period of nineteen years, which being completed, the new and full moons return on the same days of the month.
3.
The cycle of the sun, is a period of twenty eight years, which having elapsed, the dominical or Sunday letters return to their former place, and proceed in the former order, according to the Julian calendar.
4.
Cycle of indiction, a period of fifteen years, at the end of which the Roman emperors imposed an extraordinary tax, to pay the soldiers who were obliged to serve in the army for that period and no longer.
5.
A round of years, or period of time, in which the same course begins again; a periodical space of time.
6.
An imaginary orb or circle in the heavens.

Definition 2024

cycle

cycle

See also: -cycle

English

Noun

cycle ‎(plural cycles)

  1. An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
    the cycle of the seasons, or of the year
    • Burke
      Wages […] bear a full proportion […] to the medium of provision during the last bad cycle of twenty years.
  2. A complete rotation of anything.
  3. A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
    • 2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
      No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
  4. The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
  5. (music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.
    The interval cycle C4 consists of the pitch classes 0, 4 and 8; when starting on E, it is realised as the pitches E, G# and C.‎
  6. A series of poems, songs or other works of art.
    The "Ring of the Nibelung" is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner, the famous nineteenth-century German composer.‎
  7. A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
    Put the washing in on a warm cycle.‎
    the spin cycle
  8. A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle; or, motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels, such as a motorbike, motorcycle, motorized tricycle, or motortrike.
  9. (baseball) A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
    Jones hit for the cycle in the game.‎
  10. (graph theory) A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
  11. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Burke to this entry?)
  12. An age; a long period of time.
    • Tennyson
      Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
  13. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
    • Evelyn
      We […] present our gardeners with a complete cycle of what is requisite to be done throughout every month of the year.
  14. (botany) One entire round in a circle or a spire.
    a cycle or set of leaves
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)

Usage notes

  • (aviation sense): One take-off and landing of an aircraft is a cycle, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
  • (baseball sense): As in the example sentence, one is usually said to hit for the cycle. However, other uses also occur, such as hit a cycle and complete the cycle.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

cycle ‎(third-person singular simple present cycles, present participle cycling, simple past and past participle cycled)

  1. To ride a bicycle or other cycle.
  2. To go through a cycle or to put through a cycle.
  3. (electronics) To turn power off and back on
    Avoid cycling the device unnecessarily.
  4. (ice hockey) To maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone by handling and passing the puck in a loop from the boards near the goal up the side boards and passing to back to the boards near the goal
    They have their cycling game going tonight.

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sikl/

Etymology

From Late Latin cyclus.

Noun

cycle m ‎(plural cycles)

  1. cycle
  2. (Switzerland) middle school, junior high school

Latin

Noun

cycle

  1. vocative singular of cyclus

Etymology

From Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος ‎(kúklos), reduplicated form of a Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos ‎(“circle, wheel”). Cognates include Sanskrit चक्र ‎(cakrá), Latin colus, Old English hwēol (English wheel), English ancillary

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsaɪkəl/
  • Rhymes: -aɪkəl

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