NUTATION • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Nutation

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noun

Nutation n.

The act of nodding. "So from the midmost the nutation spreads, Round and more round, o'er all the sea of heads."

(Astron.) A very small libratory motion of the earth's axis, by which its inclination to the plane of the ecliptic is constantly varying by a small amount.

(Bot.)

(a)

The motion of a flower in following the apparent movement of the sun, from the east in the morning to the west in the evening.

(b)

Circumnutation.

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Etymology of 'Nutation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nutation" Quotes from Famous Books

... too many for me. Perhaps I might add, that the courses have been so also. As my friend SOYER used to observe when we were together in the Crimea, astronomical and gastronomical laws are alike fixed. And one of them is, that the precession of the dinner-plates, and the nutation of the glasses, do not promote the music of the spheres. But, Mr. PUNCH and gentlemen, although not one of the heavenly bodies, indeed altogether terrestrial, one feels, naturally, rounder in his orbit, and a little more likely to see stars, after such a dinner as this, than ...

— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 14, 1870 • Various

Words linked to "Nutation" : nutate, nod