Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Meteor

Me′te·or (mē′tē·ẽr), n. [F. météore, Gr. μετέωρον, pl. μετέωρα things in the air, fr. μετέωρος high in air, raised off the ground; μετά beyond + ἐώρα, αἰώρα, a suspension or hovering in the air, fr. ἀείρειν to lift, raise up.]

1. Any phenomenon or appearance in the atmosphere, as clouds, rain, hail, snow, etc.

Hail, an ordinary meteor. Bp. Hall.

2. Specif.: A transient luminous body or appearance seen in the atmosphere, or in a more elevated region.

The vaulty top of heaven Figured quite o'er with burning meteors. Shak.

☞ The term is especially applied to fireballs, and the masses of stone or other substances which sometimes fall to the earth; also to shooting stars and to ignes fatui. Meteors are often classed as: aerial meteors, winds, tornadoes, etc.; aqueous meteors, rain, hail, snow, dew, etc.; luminous meteors, rainbows, halos, etc.; and igneous meteors, lightning, shooting stars, and the like.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.