Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Orb

Orb (ôrb), n. [OF. orb blind, fr. L. orbus destitute.] (Arch.) A blank window or panel. [Obs.] Oxf. Gloss.

Orb, n. [F. orbe, fr. L. orbis circle, orb. Cf. Orbit.]

1. A spherical body; a globe; especially, one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star.

In the small orb of one particular tear. Shak.

Whether the prime orb, Incredible how swift, had thither rolled. Milton.

2. One of the azure transparent spheres conceived by the ancients to be inclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions.

3. A circle; esp., a circle, or nearly circular orbit, described by the revolution of a heavenly body; an orbit.

The schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs. Bacon.

You seem to me as Dian in her orb. Shak.

In orbs Of circuit inexpressible they stood, Orb within orb. Milton.

4. A period of time marked off by the revolution of a heavenly body. [R.] Milton.

5. The eye, as luminous and spherical. [Poetic]

A drop serene hath quenched their orbs. Milton.

6. A revolving circular body; a wheel. [Poetic]

The orbs Of his fierce chariot rolled. Milton.

7. A sphere of action. [R.] Wordsworth.

But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe. Shak

8. Same as Mound, a ball or globe. See lst Mound.

9. (Mil.) A body of soldiers drawn up in a circle, as for defense, esp. infantry to repel cavalry.

Syn. — Globe; ball; sphere. See Globe.

Orb (ôrb), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Orbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Orbing.] 1. To form into an orb or circle. [Poetic] Milton. Lowell.

2. To encircle; to surround; to inclose. [Poetic]

The wheels were orbed with gold. Addison.

Orb, v. i. To become round like an orb. [Poetic]

And orb into the perfect star. Tennyson.

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.