ELLIPTIC • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Elliptic

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adjective

Elliptical, Elliptic adj.

Of or pertaining to an ellipse; having the form of an ellipse; oblong, with rounded ends. "The planets move in elliptic orbits." "The billiard sharp who any one catches, His doom's extremely hard He's made to dwell In a dungeon cell On a spot that's always barred. And there he plays extravagant matches In fitless finger-stalls On a cloth untrue With a twisted cue And elliptical billiard balls!"

Having a part omitted; as, an elliptical phrase.

Leaving out information essential to comprehension; so concise as to be difficult to understand; obscure or ambiguous; of speech or writing; as, an elliptical comment.

Elliptic chuck. See under Chuck.

Elliptic compasses, an instrument arranged for drawing ellipses.

Elliptic function. (Math.) See Function.

Elliptic integral. (Math.) See Integral.

Elliptic polarization. See under Polarization.

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Etymology of 'Elliptic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Elliptic" Quotes from Famous Books

... friend's purpose; and he knew the opportunity would be given him before the day was over. His professional duties despatched, he had only to go up to his room to wait. Draper nearly always looked in on him for a moment before dinner: it was the hour most propitious to their elliptic interchange ...

— Tales Of Men And Ghosts • Edith Wharton

... style which a friend of mine chooses to distinguish by the name of Burgundian architecture; and he tells me that he considers it as the parent of our Tudor style. Here, the windows in the body of the building take flattened elliptic heads; and they are divided by one mullion and one transom. The mouldings are highly wrought, and enriched with foliage. The lucarne windows are of a different design, and form the most characteristic feature of the front: they are pointed and enriched ...

— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. I. (of 2) • Dawson Turner

... brachypoda).—Himalayas, China and Japan, 1827. This is an exceedingly handsome species, of tabulated appearance, occasioned by the branches being arranged almost horizontally. The leaves are of large size, elliptic-ovate, and are remarkable for their autumnal tints. The elder-like flowers appear in June. They are pure white and arranged in large cymes. C. macrophylla variegata is a distinct and very ornamental form of the above, in which the leaf margins are ...

— Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs • A. D. Webster

... of the earth around the sun is mainly effected in an ellipse, the form of which is liable to vary from the effects of planetary perturbation. These alterations of form are periodic; sometimes the curve, without ceasing to be elliptic, approaches the form of a circle, while at other times it deviates more and more from that form. From the epoch of the earliest recorded observations, the eccentricity of the terrestrial orbit has been diminishing ...

— Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men • Francois Arago