earth

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Definitions (77)

Toggle American Heritage Dictionary definitions American Heritage Dictionary (15)

  1. noun The land surface of the world.
  2. noun The softer, friable part of land; soil, especially productive soil.
  3. noun The third planet from the sun, having a sidereal period of revolution about the sun of 365.26 days at a mean distance of approximately 149 million kilometers (92.96 million miles), an axial rotation period of 23 hours 56.07 minutes, an average radius of 6,378 kilometers (3,963 miles), and a mass of approximately 5.974 × 1024 kilograms (1.317 × 1025 pounds).
  4. noun The realm of mortal existence; the temporal world.
  5. noun The human inhabitants of the world: The earth received the news with joy.
  6. noun Worldly affairs and pursuits.
  7. noun Everyday life; reality: was brought back to earth from his daydreams of wealth and fame.
  8. noun The substance of the human body; clay.
  9. noun The lair of a burrowing animal.
  10. noun Chiefly British The ground of an electrical circuit.
  11. noun Chemistry Any of several metallic oxides, such as alumina or zirconia, that are difficult to reduce and were formerly regarded as elements.
  12. transitive verb To cover or heap (plants) with soil for protection.
  13. transitive verb To chase (an animal) into an underground hiding place.
  14. intransitive verb To burrow or hide in the ground. Used of a hunted animal.
  15. idiom on earth Among all the possibilities: Why on earth did you put on that outfit?

Toggle Century Dictionary definitions Century Dictionary (49)

  1. The terraqueous globe which we inhabit. It is one of the planets of the solar system, being the third in order from the sun. The figure of the earth is approximately that of an ellipsoid of revolution or oblate spheroid, the axes of which measure 12,756,506 meters and 12,713,042 meters, or 7,926 statute miles and 1,041 yards, and 7,899 statute miles and 1,023 yards, respectively, thus making the compression 1:293. The radius of the earth, considered as a sphere, is 3,958 miles. The mean density of the whole earth is 5.6, or about twice that of the crust, and its interior is probably metallic. The earth revolves upon its axis in one sidereal day, which is 3 minutes and 55.91 seconds shorter than a mean solar day. Its axis remains nearly parallel to itself, but has a large but slow gyration which produces the precession of the equinoxes. The whole earth revolves about the sun in an ellipse in one sidereal year, which is 365 days, 6, hours, 9 minutes, and 9 seconds. The ecliptic, or plane of the earth's orbit, is inclined to the equator by 23° 27° 12″ .68 mean obliquity for January 0, 1890, according to Hansen. The earth is distant from the sun by about 93,000,000 miles. A nobill tree, thou secomoure; I blisse hym that the on the erthe brought. York Plays, p. 214.
  2. One expression only in the Old Testament gives us the word earth in its astronomical meaning,—that in the twenty-sixth chapter of Job:— “He stretched out the north over empty space; He hanged the earth upon nothing.” Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 104. It appears, … from what we know of the tides of the ocean, that the earth as a whole is more rigid than glass, and therefore that no very large portion of its interior can be liquid. Clerk Maxwell, Heat, p. 21. Sir W. Thomson has calculated that, if no change has occurred in the order of things, it cannot have been more than 200,000,000 years since the earth was in the condition of a mass of molten matter, on which a solid crust was just beginning to form. Clerk Maxwell, Heat, p. 248.
  3. The solid matter of the globe, in distinction from water and air; the materials composing the solid parts of the globe; hence, the firm land of the earth's surface; the ground: as, he fell to the earth. God called the dry land earth. Gen. i. 10.
  4. The loose material of the earth's surface; the disintegrated particles of solid matter, in distinction from rock; more particularly, the combinations of particles constituting soil, mold, or dust, as opposed to unmixed sand or clay. Earth, being regarded by ancient philosophers as simple, was called an element; and in popular language we still hear of the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water. Withinne a litil tyme ʒe schal se al the gold withinne the Mercurie turned into erthe as sotile as flour. Book of Quinte Essence (ed. Furnivall), p. 8. Two mules' burden of earth. 2 Ki. v. 17. The majority of the cities and towns [of Greece] complied with the demand made upon them, and gave the [Persian] king earth and water. Von Ranke, Univ. Hist. (trans.), p. 165.
  5. The inhabitants of the globe; the world. The whole earth was of one language. Gen. xi. 1. She is the hopeful lady of my earth. Shak., R. and J., i. 2.
  6. Dirt; hence, something low or mean. What ho! slave! Caliban! Thou earth, thou! speak. Shak., Tempest, i. 2.
  7. The hole in which a fox or other burrowing animal hides itself. Seeing I never stray'd beyond the cell, But live like an old badger in his earth. Tennyson, Holy Grail.
  8. In chem., a name formerly given to certain inodorous, dry, and uninflammable substances which are metallic oxids, but were formerly regarded as elementary bodies. They are insoluble in water, difficulty fusible, and not easily reduced to the metallic state. The most important of them are alumina, zirconia, glucina, yttria, and thorina. The alkaline earths, baryta, strontia, lime, and magnesia, have more the properties of the alkalins, being somewhat soluble in water, and having an alkaline taste and reaction.
  9. In electricity: The union of any point of a telegraph-line, submarine cable, or any system of conductors charged with or conveying electricity with the ground. It is generally made by joining the point at which the earth is to be established by means of a good conductor with a metallic plate buried in moist earth, or with metallic water-pipes or gas-pipes, which, on account of their large surface of contact with the earth, usually afford excellent earth-connections.
  10. A fault in a telegraph-line or cable, arising out of an accidental contact of some part of the metallic circuit with the earth or with more or less perfect conductors connected with the earth.
  11. Adamic earth. See Adamic.
  12. Axis of the earth. See axis.
  13. Bad earth in electricity, a connection with the earth in which great resistance is offered to the passage of the current.
  14. Black earth a kind of coal which is pounded fine and used by painters in fresco.
  15. Chian earth. See Chian.
  16. Cologne earth a kind of light bastard ocher, of a deep-brown color, transparent, and durable in water-colour painting. It is an earthy variety of lignite or partially fossilized wood, and occurs in an irregular bed from 30 to 50 feet deep near Cologne, whence the name.
  17. Compression of the earth. See compression.
  18. Dead earth, or total earth in electricity, an earth-connection offering almost no resistance to the passage of the current, as when a telegraph-wire falls upon a railroad-track, or when the conductor of a submarine cable has a considerable surface in actual contact with the water.
  19. Earth of alum a substance obtained by precipitating the earth from alum dissolved in water by adding ammonia or potassa. It is used for paints.
  20. Earth of bone a phosphate of lime existing in bones after calcination.
  21. Ends of the earth. See end.
  22. Figure of the earth the shape and size, not of the earth's surface, but of the mean sea-level continued nnder the land at the heights at which water would stand in canals open to the sea; also, the generalized figure or ellipsoid which most nearly coincides with the figure of the sea-level. If Lactantius affirm that the figure of the earth is plane, or Austin deny there are antipodes, though venerable fathers of the church and ever to be honoured, yet will not their authorities prove sufficient to ground a belief thereon. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., i. 7.
  23. Good earth in electricity, a connection with the earth in which the current meets with little resistance in its passage from the wire or conductor to the earth.
  24. Heavy earth. Same as baryta.
  25. Intermittent earth in electricity, an earth-connection such as is produced by a wire touching at intervals conducting bodies in connection with the earth.
  26. Magnetic poles of the earth. See magnetic.
  27. Partial earth in electricity, a poor earth-connection, such as exists when a telegraph-wire rests upon the ground, when its insulators are defective, or when it touches any conductor connected with the earth, but offering considerable resistance.
  28. To bring to the earth to bury. Eng. Gilds.
  29. To put to earth in electricity, to join or connect a conductor with the earth.
  30. To run to earth in hunting, to chase the game, as a fox, to its hole or burrow. Synonyms Earth, World, Globe. Earth is used as the distinctive name of our planet in the solar system, as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, etc. It is used not only of soil, but of the planet regarded as material, and also as the home of the human race. (See Job i. 7; Ps. lviii. 11.) World has especial application to the earth as inhabited; hence we say, he is gone to a better world; are there other worlds besides this? It belongs, therefore, especially to the surface of the earth; hence we speak of sailing around the world, but not the earth. Globe makes prominent the roundness of the earth: as, to circumnavigate the globe. The first man is of the earth, earthy. 1 Cor. xv. 47. The Sun fiies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheel'd in her ellipse. Tennyson, Golden Year. Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world. Tennyson, Princess, ii. In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? Sydney Smith, Rev. of Seybart's Annals of United States. On the head of Frederic is all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many years and in every quarter of the globe. Macaulay, Frederic the Great.
  31. To hide in or as in the earth. An you once earth yourself, John, in the barn, I have no daughter vor you. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 2. The fox is earthed. Dryden, Spanish Friar.
  32. To put underground; bury; inter. Upon your grannam's grave, that very night We earthed her in the shades. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Here silver swans with nightingales set spells, Which sweetly charm the traveller, and raise Earth's earthed monarchs from their hidden cells. John Rogers, To Anne Bradstreet. But now he hath served the sentence out, … Why not earth him and no more words? T. B. Aldrich, The Jew's Gift.
  33. To cover with earth or mold; choke with earth. O thou, the fountain of whose better part Is earth'd and gravel'd up with vain desire. Quarles, Emblems, i. 7. Earth up with fresh mould the roots of those auriculas which the frost may have uncovered. Evelyn, Calendarium Hortense.
  34. In electricity, to put to earth; place in connection with the earth. In dry weather they [conductors] are not earthed at all well, and a strong charge may then surge up and down them, and light somebody else's gas in the most surprising way. Science, XII. 18.
  35. To retire underground; burrow, as a hunted animal. Huntsmen tell us that a fox when escaped from the dogs, after a hard chase, always walks himself cool before he earths. Bp. Horne, Essays and Thoughts. Hence foxes earthed, and wolves abhorred the day, And hungry churles ensnared the nightly prey. Tickell, Hunting.
  36. The act of plowing; a plowing. Such land as ye break up for barley to sow, Two earths at the least, ere ye sow it, bestow. Tusser, Husbandry.
  37. A day's plowing. Halliwell. [Provincial English]
  38. Barbados earth a friable earthy marl of Miocene age, occurring in the Barbados Islands and accumulated in deposits which rise to a height of over one thousand feet It is largely composed of the minute silicious skeletons of radiolarians with an intermixture of the calcareous tests of the Foraminifera. According to Haeckel the number of species of Radiolaria in the Barbados earth is not less than 400 and probably more than 500. This authority regards it as a deep-sea deposit and states that very many of the Barbados radiolarians “are to-day extant and unchanged in the radiolarian ooze of the deep Pacific Ocean.”
  39. Black earth. Same as chernozem.
  40. Blue earth a local name for the stratum which yields amber on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
  41. Cassel earth. Same as Vandyke brown.
  42. Earth quadrant. See quad-rant.
  43. Golden earth in early chemistry, one of the names for orpiment or arsenic trisulphid.
  44. Japonic earth terra Japonica; catechu; cutch.
  45. Rare earth. in chem., one of those earths of which the compounds are found in nature only in small quantity and sparingly distributed. The principal rare earths are beryllia, scandia, ceria, lanthana, neodymia, praseodymia, yttria, erbia, terbia, ytterbia, samaria, zirconia, and thoria; but there is doubt as to the individuality of some of these, and several others have received partial recognition.
  46. Rare-earth metals the metals the oxids of which are known as the rare earths. See earth.
  47. Red earth red residual soil which results from the decomposition of ferruginous rocks; terra rossa.
  48. Residuary earth soil formed by the decomposition and disintegration of rock, without undergoing transportation. R. D. Salisbury, Geol. Surv. of New Jersey, 1892, p. 45.
  49. Santorin earth a mineral material of volcanic origin, resembling the Italian pozzuolana, found in the Greek island of Santorin, used in making hydraulic cement.

Toggle GNU Webster's 1913 definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

  1. The globe or planet which we inhabit; the world, in distinction from the sun, moon, or stars. Also, this world as the dwelling place of mortals, in distinction from the dwelling place of spirits.
  2. To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.
  3. To burrow.
  4. A plowing.

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (9)

  1. a connection between an electrical device and a large conducting body, such as the earth (which is taken to be at zero voltage)
  2. the concerns of this life as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife
  3. the abode of mortals (as contrasted with Heaven or Hell)
  4. the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on
  5. the solid part of the earth's surface
  6. the loose soft material that makes up a large part of the land surface
  7. once thought to be one of four elements composing the universe (Empedocles)
  8. connect to the earth
  9. hide in the earth like a hunted animal

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