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ORB
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The ball-shaped capsule containing the vertebrate eye
Synonyms:
eyeball; orb
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("orb" is a kind of...):
capsule (a structure that encloses a body part)
Holonyms ("orb" is a part of...):
eye; oculus; optic (the organ of sight)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An object with a spherical shape
Example:
a ball of fire
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes
Hypernyms ("orb" is a kind of...):
sphere (a solid figure bounded by a spherical surface (including the space it encloses))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "orb"):
crystal ball (a glass or crystal globe used in crystal gazing by fortunetellers)
camphor ball; mothball (a small sphere of camphor or naphthalene used to keep moths away from stored clothing)
time-ball (a ball that slides down a staff to show a fixed time; especially at an observatory)
fireball (the luminous center of a nuclear explosion)
fireball (a ball of fire (such as the sun or a ball-shaped discharge of lightning))
globule (a small globe or ball)
spherule; pellet (a small sphere)
bolus (a small round soft mass (as of chewed food))
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Example:
electrons orbit the nucleus
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "orb" is one way to...):
circle (move in a circular path above (someone or something))
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "orb"):
retrograde (move backward in an orbit, of celestial bodies)
Sentence frames:
Something is ----ing PP
Something ----s something
Context examples:
These two planets move exceedingly slowly and will be within significant mathematical orb most of the year, until mid-November, and then not again for years.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Sometimes they were the expressive eyes of Henry, languishing in death, the dark orbs nearly covered by the lids and the long black lashes that fringed them; sometimes it was the watery, clouded eyes of the monster, as I first saw them in my chamber at Ingolstadt.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I lingered at the gates; I lingered on the lawn; I paced backwards and forwards on the pavement; the shutters of the glass door were closed; I could not see into the interior; and both my eyes and spirit seemed drawn from the gloomy house—from the grey-hollow filled with rayless cells, as it appeared to me—to that sky expanded before me,—a blue sea absolved from taint of cloud; the moon ascending it in solemn march; her orb seeming to look up as she left the hill-tops, from behind which she had come, far and farther below her, and aspired to the zenith, midnight dark in its fathomless depth and measureless distance; and for those trembling stars that followed her course; they made my heart tremble, my veins glow when I viewed them.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
These two planets move slowly, so they will be within orb (close enough to have you feel their vibrant energies) from now through mid-November.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
This conjunction has been a long time coming, and it has been what astrologers call “within orb” (within a significant closeness to exert a noticeable influence) since March 2019.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)