▪ I. eclipse, n.
(ɪˈklɪps)
Forms: 4 esclepis, (enclips), 4–7 eclips, 5–6 eclypse, (5 ecleps, -ypce, 6 eclip(s)is, 7 eeclipse), 4– eclipse.
[a. OF. eclipse, esclipse, ad. L. eclīpsis, Gr. ἔκλειψις, noun of action f. ἐκλείπειν to be eclipsed, literally to forsake its accustomed place, fail to appear.]
1. a. Astron. An interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention of some other body, either between it and the eye, or between the luminous body and that illuminated by it; as of the moon, by passing through the earth's shadow; of the sun, by the moon coming between it and the observer; or of a satellite, by entering the shadow of its primary. Also in phrase, in eclipse. For annular, partial, total eclipse, see those adjs. Cf. occultation.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 16814 Oft siths haue we sene..esclepis [v.r. clipes, clyppes, clippis] of sun and mone. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. (1868) 133 Whan þe moone is in the eclips. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxi. 140 Þis eclipse . þat ouer-closeþ now þe sonne. 1494 Fabyan vii. ccxlvi. 289 In y⊇ yere of our Lord .xii.c.xxii...apered a great eclypce of the sone. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. (1872) 55 In the tyme of the eclipis, the eird is betuix the mune and the soune. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. ii. 112 These late Eclipses in the Sun and Moone portend no good to vs. 1637 Milton Lycidas 100 That fatal..bark Built in the eclipse. 1750 Harris Hermes (1841) 119 Often had mankind seen the sun in eclipse. 1868 Lockyer Heavens 258 An eclipse of Titan. 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 33 The Sun cloak'd himself in wan eclipse. |
b. transf. Absence, cessation, or deprivation of light, temporary or permanent; techn. the periodical obscuration of the light from a light-house.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 305 A vniuersall derknes & eclipse was ouer all the worlde. 1563 Mirr. Mag., Buckhm. xciii, With fowle eclypse had reft my syght away. 1671 Milton Samson 80 Blind among enemies..Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 736 The eclipse That metropolitan volcanoes make. 1830 Tennyson Burial of Love, His eyes in eclipse. 1858 Merc. Mar. Mag. V. 186 A Fixed Red Light, varied by flashes preceded and followed by short eclipses. |
2. fig. a. Obscuration, obscurity; dimness; loss of brilliance or splendour.
| 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 645 This..eclipse of Christian manners, doth presage the destruction of the world to be at hand. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xxi. 140 God oftentimes leaves the brightest men in an eclipse. 1650 Bounds Publ. Obed. (ed. 2) 18 How knowes he..that the..Power is..in an Ecclipse? a 1711 Ken Serm. Wks. (1838) 114 Goodness has an inseparable splendour, which can never suffer a total eclipse. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 31 When I..declare the soul's eclipse Not the soul's extinction. |
b. (See quot. 1838.) Hence eclipse-dress, eclipse-feathers, eclipse-plumage.
| 1838 C. Waterton Ess. Nat. Hist. 202 At the close of the breeding season, the drake undergoes a very remarkable change of plumage..and ..is..so completely clothed in the raiment of the female, that it requires a keen..eye to distinguish the one from the other... Thus we may say that once every year..the drake goes, as it were, into an eclipse. 1906 C. W. Beebe Bird 48 The invisible cloak of his brooding mate is dropped over him for a while—his colours vanish, and by a partial moult..the hues of his plumage change to an inconspicuous mottling of brown, hardly distinguishable from the female... This has been happily termed the ‘eclipse’ plumage. 1913 Brit. Birds VII. 2 The short eclipse-feathers..differ so little in general tint from the feathers of the winter- and breeding-plumage..that it is difficult to see what advantage the bird derives from the change. Ibid. 74 The second eclipse is for the most part similar in colouring to the first eclipse,..but these second eclipse Eiders can always be distinguished..from the first eclipse..birds. 1914 Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club XXXIII. 67 The pigment for the coloration of the eclipse-dress was beginning to form. 1930 Kirkman & Jourdain Brit. Birds 159 Gadwall..In eclipse much like duck. 1958 Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles VII. 1 The male [sc. mallard] in eclipse resembles the female closely. Ibid. 31 The adult drake [of the teal] begins to assume eclipse plumage in June..by August the eclipse is complete. |
† 3. A fraudulent device in dice-playing; (see quot.). Obs.
| 1711 J. Puckle Club (1817) 19 Gamesters have the Top, the Peep, Eclipse [note, securing with the little Finger, a Die on the outside of the Box], Thumbing, etc. |
▪ II. eclipse, v.
(ɪˈklɪps)
Forms: see prec. 5 pa. pple. eclippid.
[f. prec. Cf. Fr. éclipser, late L. eclipsare.]
† 1. intr. To suffer eclipse; to be eclipsed. Obs.
| 1393 Gower Conf. II. 153 The sonne and mone eclipsen both. a 1593 T. Watson Poems (Arb.) 206 Thou neuer doest eclips..thy glorie still doth waxe. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 666 The night-hag..comes.. to dance With Lapland witches while the labouring moon Eclipses at their charms. |
† b. fig. Obs.
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas i. ii. 5 a, God..can..maken princes eclipsen in theyr glory. 1590 Greene Poems (1861) 296 Starry eyes, whereat my sight Did eclipse with much delight. |
2. trans. Of one of the heavenly bodies: To cause an obscuration of some other heavenly body, by passing between it and the spectator, or between it and the source from which it derives its light.
| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iv. 356 The son had lost his sight; Eclippid was hee. 1596 Drayton Legends i. 928 The blessed Sunne..Eclips'd to me, eternally appeares. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 34 The Duration of some Eclipses is..so long..as to let the Moon go the Length of three of its Diameters in the Shadow totally eclipsed. 1832 Nat. Philos. II. Introd. Astron. p. lii. (Usef. Knowl. Ser.) When the moon eclipses the sun to us, the earth is eclipsed to the moon. |
b. transf. To intercept (light); used techn. with reference to an intermittent light in a lighthouse.
| 1858 Merc. Mar. Mag. V. 60 It is a White Revolving Light, eclipsed once a minute. |
3. fig. To cast a shadow upon, throw into the shade; to obscure, deprive of lustre.
| 1581 R. Goade in Confer. ii. (1584) H iiij b, The glorie of it was..eclipsed. 1650 B. Discollim. 30 A toleration of errours eclipsing and accosting Gods Truths. 1662 Dryden Wild Gall. Wks. 1725 I. 164, I confess I was a little eclips'd; but I'll chear up. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. II. 525 The ancient name was eclipsed by a later title. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 351 The splendour of the House of Argyle had been eclipsed. |
† b. To hide, screen from. Also, to extinguish (life). Obs.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. v. 53 Here I take my leaue of thee..Borne to eclipse thy Life this afternoone. 1642 G. Englisham Forerunner of Rev. 3 How easily I may eclipse myself from his power to do me harm. 1653 Cloria & Narcissus i. 243 He was not to be ecclipsed from the eyes of the multitude. |
4. To render dim by comparison; to outshine, surpass. Chiefly fig.
| 1717 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. xliv. 18 Her earrings eclipsed all the rest. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxvii. 127 The Earl of Surrey had totally eclipsed him in favour. 1812 S. Rogers Columbus xii. 61 A spark is thrown that shall eclipse the sun. 1831 Brewster Newton (1855) I. xiii. 381 A discovery which is the glory of one age is eclipsed by the extension of it in another. 1870 Disraeli Lothair xxxi. 159 One must sing in a room or the nightingales would eclipse us. |
5. † a. To elide or omit (sounds) in pronunciation (obs.). b. In Irish (Gaelic, etc.) Grammar: To change the sound of an initial consonant according to euphonic laws. (In writing, the letter expressing the new sound is prefixed to the original initial which becomes silent.) See eclipsis.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie II. xii. (Arb.) 127 If he [a word] goe before another word commencing with a vowell not letting him to be eclipsed, his vtterance is easie. 1602 Carew Cornwall 56 a, The English which they speake is good..but they disgrace it..eclipsing (somewhat like the Somersetshire men) specially in pronouncing the names. |