Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to an epicycle.
  • noun A curve which is the path of a point, P describing uniformly a circular orbit relatively to a point Q which itself has a uniform circular motion about O.

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

  • adjective Pertaining to, resembling, or having the motion of, an epicycle.
  • adjective (Mach.) a train of mechanism in which epicyclic motion is involved; esp., a train of spur wheels, bevel wheels, or belt pulleys, in which an arm, carrying one or more of the wheels, sweeps around a center lying in an axis common to the other wheels.

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

  • adjective of, or relating to epicycles

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to an epicycle

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The first patent for a compact epicyclic hub gear was granted in 1895 to the American machinist Seward Thomas Johnson of Noblesville, Indiana, U.S.A.

    Rectilinear or Obtuse? Cycling in the Media BikeSnobNYC 2009

  • Three centuries later, the astronomer Ptolemy build on his work to form the epicyclic model.

    Egnor responds, falls flat on his face - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • Our epicyclic solution is to augment statutory law with administrative law.

    Tragedy of the Commons (historical) Garrett James Hardin 2007

  • A chaotic model might well exhibit “interesting” behavior on a whole spectrum of time scales, though, as various parts of the dynamic cycle undergo epicyclic oscillations.

    Willis E on Hansen and Model Reliability « Climate Audit 2006

  • At least 20 gear wheels of the mechanism have been preserved, including a very sophisticated assembly of gears that were mounted eccentrically on a turntable and probably functioned as a sort of epicyclic or differential, gear-system.

    Computer Greeks Zoe Brain 2005

  • It could be argued that if the Greeks knew the principle of gearing, they should have had no difficulty in constructing mechanisms as complex as epicyclic gears.

    Archive 2005-10-01 Zoe Brain 2005

  • It could be argued that if the Greeks knew the principle of gearing, they should have had no difficulty in constructing mechanisms as complex as epicyclic gears.

    Computer Greeks Zoe Brain 2005

  • At least 20 gear wheels of the mechanism have been preserved, including a very sophisticated assembly of gears that were mounted eccentrically on a turntable and probably functioned as a sort of epicyclic or differential, gear-system.

    Archive 2005-10-01 Zoe Brain 2005

  • Mr Wright found evidence that the Antikythera mechanism would have been able to reproduce the motions of the sun and moon accurately, using an epicyclic model devised by Hipparchus, and of the planets Mercury and Venus, using an epicyclic model derived by Apollonius of Perga.

    Boing Boing: September 29, 2002 - October 5, 2002 Archives 2002

  • It's logical in the epicyclic sense that you can always make up a new logical rule to cover each exception.

    languagehat.com: LINGUISTIC MUTATION. 2004

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