ELLIPTIC • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Elliptic

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

adjective

Elliptical, Elliptic adj.

Of or pertaining to an ellipse; having the form of an ellipse; oblong, with rounded ends. "The planets move in elliptic orbits." "The billiard sharp who any one catches, His doom's extremely hard He's made to dwell In a dungeon cell On a spot that's always barred. And there he plays extravagant matches In fitless finger-stalls On a cloth untrue With a twisted cue And elliptical billiard balls!"

Having a part omitted; as, an elliptical phrase.

Leaving out information essential to comprehension; so concise as to be difficult to understand; obscure or ambiguous; of speech or writing; as, an elliptical comment.

Elliptic chuck. See under Chuck.

Elliptic compasses, an instrument arranged for drawing ellipses.

Elliptic function. (Math.) See Function.

Elliptic integral. (Math.) See Integral.

Elliptic polarization. See under Polarization.

See images of 'Elliptic'

Etymology of 'Elliptic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Elliptic" Quotes from Famous Books

... cunning; proud pretension by inertia, by a low tone of patriotic sorrow; low, but incurable, unalterable. Wise as serpents; harmless as doves: what a spectacle for France! Six Hundred inorganic individuals, essential for its regeneration and salvation, sit there, on their elliptic benches, longing passionately towards life; in painful durance; like souls waiting to be born. Speeches are spoken; eloquent; audible within doors and without. Mind agitates itself against mind; the Nation looks on with ever deeper interest. Thus ...

— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle

... relative plenty or scarcity (to use an elliptic phrase) upon the outcome of distribution is easily understood if it is kept in mind that the distributive process is one of repeated negotiation and bargain. In this process each group or agent strives to get a high return for its services in production. ...

— The Settlement of Wage Disputes • Herbert Feis

... step toward kinetic theory of matter, it is certainly most interesting to remark that in the quasi-elasticity, elasticity looking like that of an India-rubber band, which we see in a vibrating smoke-ring launched from an elliptic aperture, or in two smoke-rings which were circular, but which have become deformed from circularity by mutual collision, we have in reality a virtual elasticity in matter devoid of elasticity, and even devoid of rigidity, the virtual elasticity being ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 • Various

... I put in the bottom of my new large trunk in New York, not a "duplex elliptic," for none were then made, but a "Belmonte," of thirty springs, for my wife. I bought, for her more common wear, a good "Belle-Fontaine." For Sarah and Susy each, I got two "Dumb-Belles." For Aunt Eunice and Aunt Clara, maiden ...

— If, Yes and Perhaps - Four Possibilities and Six Exaggerations with Some Bits of Fact • Edward Everett Hale

... was very little to justify Ardan's hope. Barbican's theory of the elliptic orbit was unfortunately too well grounded to allow a single reasonable doubt to be expressed regarding the Projectile's fate. It was to gravitate for ever around the Moon—a sub-satellite. It was a new born individual in the astral universe, a microcosm, a little ...

— All Around the Moon • Jules Verne

More quotes...