Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An ancient astronomical instrument consisting of a ring fixed in the plane of the equator, sometimes crossed at right angles by another ring fixed in the plane of the meridian.
  • noun armilla, 1.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A bracelet.
  • noun An ancient astronomical instrument.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A bracelet.
  • noun obsolete An ancient astronomical instrument, having either one ring placed in the plane of the equator for determining the time of the equinoxes (an equinoctial armil) or two or more rings, one in the plane of the meridian, for observing the solstices (a solstitial armil).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin armilla ("a bracelet").

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Examples

  • "Receive this armil as a token of the divine mercy embracing thee on every side [32]."

    Coronation Anecdotes Giles Gossip

  • From the use of the gnomon there naturally grew up the conception of angular measurements; and with the advance of geometrical conceptions there came the hemisphere of Berosus, the equinoctial armil, the solstitial armil, and the quadrant of Ptolemy -- all of them employing shadows as indices of the sun's position, but in combination with angular divisions.

    Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects Everyman's Library Herbert Spencer 1861

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