appulse
“
Again the appulse, again the backward strain-- Till ocean must have rest With one abandoned movement, swift and wild As though bowed head and outstretched arms it laid On the earth's lap, soft sobbing,--hushed and stayed, The great sea quiets, like a soothed child.
View all »Definitions (4)
American Heritage Dictionary
Century Dictionary (3)
- The act of striking against or driving upon something; active or energetic approach.
[Rare.] In all consonants there is an appulse of the organs. Holder. - In astronomy, the approach of any planet to a conjunction with the sun or a star.
- 3. A coming to land, as of a vessel: as, “the appulse of the ark,” J. Bryant, Mythol., II. 412.
GNU Webster's 1913 (1)
WordNet
Elsewhere on the web
View all » Examples
-
Again the appulse, again the backward strain-- Till ocean must have rest With one abandoned movement, swift and wild As though bowed head and outstretched arms it laid On the earth's lap, soft sobbing,--hushed and stayed, The great sea quiets, like a soothed child.
— Ride to the Lady And Other Poems -
Again the appulse, again the backward strain --
— Ride to the Lady And Other Poems -
This interesting planet makes a very near appulse to Jupiter on the 16th at
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 276, October 6, 1827 -
A well formed in this manner would afford, as I apprehend, the most certain observation of the sun's appulse to the zenith, that could be made with the naked eye; for when the sun's centre was upon the zenith, his disc would be seen by reflection on the water, in the very middle of the well, -- that is, as a circle perfectly concentric with the circle of the water; and, I believe, there is nothing of which the naked eye can judge with so much precision as the concentricity of two circles, provided the circles be neither very nearly equal, nor the inner circle very small in proportion to the outer. "
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson -
Thirdly, that the constitution and motion of the parts must be such, that the appulse of the luminous body may be communicated or propagated through it to the greatest imaginable distance in the least imaginable time, though I see no reason to affirm, that it must be in an instant: For I know not any one Experiment or observation that does prove it.
— Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon
Stats
Appulse has been looked up 129 times, favorited 0 times, listed 3 times, commented on once, and has a Scrabble score of 11.