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Diurnal   /daɪˈərnəl/   Listen
adjective
Diurnal  adj.  
1.
Relating to the daytime; belonging to the period of daylight, distinguished from the night; opposed to nocturnal; as, diurnal heat; diurnal hours.
2.
Daily; recurring every day; performed in a day; going through its changes in a day; constituting the measure of a day; as, a diurnal fever; a diurnal task; diurnal aberration, or diurnal parallax; the diurnal revolution of the earth. "Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring."
3.
(Bot.) Opening during the day, and closing at night; said of flowers or leaves.
4.
(Zool.) Active by day; applied especially to the eagles and hawks among raptorial birds, and to butterflies (Diurna) among insects.
Diurnal aberration (Anat.), the aberration of light arising from the effect of the earth's rotation upon the apparent direction of motion of light.
Diurnal arc, the arc described by the sun during the daytime or while above the horizon; hence, the arc described by the moon or a star from rising to setting.
Diurnal circle, the apparent circle described by a celestial body in consequence of the earth's rotation.
Diurnal motion of the earth, the motion of the earth upon its axis which is described in twenty-four hours.
Diurnal motion of a heavenly body, that apparent motion of the heavenly body which is due to the earth's diurnal motion.
Diurnal parallax. See under Parallax.
Diurnal revolution of a planet, the motion of the planet upon its own axis which constitutes one complete revolution.
Synonyms: See Daily.


noun
Diurnal  n.  
1.
A daybook; a journal. (Obs.)
2.
(R. C. Ch.) A small volume containing the daily service for the "little hours," viz., prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline.
3.
(Zool.) A diurnal bird or insect.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Diurnal" Quotes from Famous Books



... no remedy; Mr Campbell, being obliged to acquiesce, is fain to stop his ears with cotton; to fortify his head with three or four night-caps and every morning retire into the penetralia of his habitation, in order to avoid this diurnal annoyance. When the music ceases, he produces himself at an open window that looks into the courtyard, which is by this time filled with a crowd of his vassals and dependents, who worship his first ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett
... be sought in one of two directions: (1) The usual cause of absence of nocturnal emissions is to be found in the fact that in the man in question the seminal vesicles are periodically drained by involuntary diurnal emissions, occurring usually when the individual is at stool. These emissions are likely to occur once in two to four weeks and take the place of the nocturnal emission. (2) Rarely we find virile, continent men whose ...
— The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction - Also Sexual Hygiene with Special Reference to the Male • Winfield S. Hall
... Reputation have ever been built on Doubt and Mystery, and sometimes the Art of being unintelligible does not a little advance the Credit of a Writer. There are many Reasons why we, who take upon Us the Task of Diurnal or Weekly Lucubrations, should be like the River Nilus, sending abroad fertile Streams to every Quarter, and still keeping our Heads undiscover'd. But why should I be compell'd to give Reasons for every thing? Were Reasons as plenty as Blackberries, as my worthy Ancestor was wont to say, I ...
— The Theater (1720) • Sir John Falstaffe
... seventy-six times faster than a twenty-four-pound cannon-ball flies, which goes one hundred and ninety-five fathoms a second. It moves, then, seven leagues and six tenths per second; you see it is very different from the diurnal movement of ...
— The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne
... methods employed allow the diurnal variations both of velocity and altitude to be successfully measured. The velocity observations confirm the results that have been obtained from mountain stations—that, though the general travel of the middle and higher clouds is much ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 • Various


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