Neptune
(ˈnɛptjuːn)
[a. F. Neptune, or ad. L. Neptūn-us.]
1. a. In Roman religion and mythology, the god of the sea, corresponding to the Greek Poseidon; also transf. the sea or ocean.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2421 Phyllis, The se..possith hym now vp now doun Til neptune hath of hym compassioun. 1564 Brief Exam. B iv b, Wyne was consecrated vnto Bacchus,..Water vnto Neptune. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 126 Full often hath she..sat with me on Neptunes yellow sands. 1634 Milton Comus 18 Neptune besides the sway Of every salt Flood, and each ebbing Stream [etc.]. 1747 Scheme Equip. Men of War 23 Their Tide of Learning,..whilst under the Influence of Neptune, is always Ebb. 1820 Shelley Hymn Merc. xxxi, The sacred wood, Which..echoes the voice of Neptune. 1873 J. Geikie Gt. Ice Age xvii. 231 Neptune, when imprisoned in such deep, narrow ocean valleys, is powerless. |
b. The sailor impersonating the sea-god in the ceremony observed in crossing the Line.
| 1815 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 104 At the usual ceremony of passing the Line,..Buonaparte made a present to old Neptune of one hundred Napoleons. |
2. Neptune's cup (or Neptune's goblet): a. A species of coral (see quot. 1855).
| 1839 H. Malcom Trav. (1840) 28/1 One of these curious productions, a species of alcyonium, called ‘Neptune's cup’. 1855 Dallas Syst. Nat. Hist. I. 239 The Alcyonium poculum, or Neptune's cup, which is found upon the coral reefs in the eastern Archipelago. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 312 There were grey sponges..in shape not unlike coral Neptune's cups. |
b. A kind of sponge (Thalassema neptuni).
| 1863 Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. III. 770 The extraordinary object which is called by the appropriate name of Neptune's cup is one of the most magnificent..of the sponge tribe. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 496 Neptune's Goblets, the large cup-shaped sponges found in the eastern seas. |
3. The second most remote planet of the solar system, discovered by Galle in 1846, and lying beyond Uranus. (A more distant planet, Pluto1, was discovered in 1930.)
| 1846 Astron. Obs. Radcliffe Observ. (1848) 284 Observed Right Ascensions and North Polar distances of the Planet Neptune. 1868 Lockyer Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 3) 267 The density of the matter of which Neptune consists. |
4. (See quots.)
| 1861 P. B. Du Chaillu Equat. Afr. viii. 90 The ‘neptune’—a plate of yellow copper, which has long been one of the standard articles of trade imported hither by the merchants. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 496 Neptunes, large brass pans used in the Bight of Biafra for obtaining salt. |