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/trˈɑpɪk/ Listen

noun

Tropic n.

(Astron.) One of the two small circles of the celestial sphere, situated on each side of the equator, at a distance of 23° 28', and parallel to it, which the sun just reaches at its greatest declination north or south, and from which it turns again toward the equator, the northern circle being called the Tropic of Cancer, and the southern the Tropic of Capricorn, from the names of the two signs at which they touch the ecliptic.

(Geog.)

(a)

One of the two parallels of terrestrial latitude corresponding to the celestial tropics, and called by the same names.

(b)

pl. The region lying between these parallels of latitude, or near them on either side. "The brilliant flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the greenhouse and the saloon."

adjective

Tropic adj. (Chem.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, an acid obtained from atropine and certain other alkaloids, as a white crystalline substance slightly soluble in water.

Tropic adj. Of or pertaining to the tropics; tropical.

Tropic bird (Zool.), any one of three species of oceanic belonging to the genus Phaethon, found chiefly in tropical seas. They are mostly white, and have two central tail feathers very long and slender. The yellow-billed tropic bird. Phaethon flavirostris (called also boatswain), is found on the Atlantic coast of America, and is common at the Bermudas, where it breeds.

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Etymology of 'Tropic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tropic" Quotes from Famous Books

... during decay of organic substances which once gave rise to the ancient superstition of "corpse lights" and the will-o'-the-wisp. It was really due, I knew, to living bacteria. But there surely had been no time for such micro-organisms to develop, even in the almost tropic heat of the Novella. Could she have been poisoned by these phosphorescent bacilli? What was it—a strange new mouth- malady that had attacked this notorious adventuress ...

— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve

... oars within a few strokes of her. She was floating as placidly as though she were in the harbour of San Francisco; the green water showed in her shadow, and in the green water waved the tropic weeds that were growing from her copper. Her paint was blistered and burnt absolutely as though a hot iron had been passed over it, and over her taffrail hung a large rope whose end was lost to sight in ...

— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... high collars and nice clothes, their newspapers and walking-sticks and gloves. What did they know? I'd been like that, just as ignorant, just as conceited and narrow-minded. And I thought of the Corydon and the blue tropic sea! ...

— Aliens • William McFee

... a tropic isle, The hush of the forest, the ocean blue, A lament for all that is false and vile, A paean for all that is good and true. Pompadour's fan, or Louis's queue, Mournful or merry, right or wrong. Subjects, you'll find, are ...

— Cap and Gown - A Treasury of College Verse • Selected by Frederic Knowles

... sun had just begun to pierce the misty tropic haze of early dawn, a small, white-painted schooner of ninety or a hundred tons burden was bearing down upon the low, densely-wooded island of Mayou, which lies between the coast of south-east New Guinea and the murderous Solomon Group—the grave of the ...

— The Tapu Of Banderah - 1901 • Louis Becke

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