Cy"cle, n. (a)
(Thermodynamics) A series of operations in which heat is
imparted to (or taken away from) a working substance which by its
expansion gives up a part of its internal energy in the form of
mechanical work (or being compressed increases its internal energy)
and is again brought back to its original state.
(b) (Elec.) A complete positive and
negative wave of an alternating current; one period. The number of
cycles (per second) is a measure of the frequency of an alternating
current.
Cy"cle (s?"k'l), n. [F.
ycle, LL. cyclus, fr. Gr. ky`klos 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), v. i.
[imp. & p. p. Cycled. (-k'ld);
p. pr. & vb. n. Cycling (-kl&?;ng).]
1. To pass through a cycle of changes; to
recur in cycles. Tennyson. Darwin.
2. To ride a bicycle, tricycle, or other
form of cycle.
Cy"cle, n. (a)
(Thermodynamics) A series of operations in which heat is
imparted to (or taken away from) a working substance which by its
expansion gives up a part of its internal energy in the form of
mechanical work (or being compressed increases its internal energy)
and is again brought back to its original state.
(b) (Elec.) A complete positive and
negative wave of an alternating current; one period. The number of
cycles (per second) is a measure of the frequency of an alternating
current.
