acyclic, a. Bot.
(əˈsɪklɪk)
[f. Gr. ἀ not + κυκλικ-ός circular.]
1. Not arranged in circles or whorls.
| 1878 M'Nab Bot. 179 The flowers generally have the parts in whorls (cyclic). Sometimes they are wholly (acyclic) or partially spiral (hemicyclic). |
2. Dynamics, etc. That does not move in circles.
| 1873 Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 137 As the negative region continues to expand till it fills all space, it loses every degree of cyclosis it has acquired, and becomes at last acyclic. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 570/2 The system now behaves, as regards the co-ordinates q1, q2..qm, exactly like the acyclic type there contemplated. 1963 New Scientist 7 Feb. 294 A commercial-scale acyclic generator has been constructed and put to work. |
3. Chem. Applied to an organic compound that contains no ‘cycle’ or ring of atoms.
| 1909 Chem. Abstr. 2145 (title) Cyclization of acyclic diketones. 1913 Bloxam & Lewis Chem. 544 There are two great divisions of organic compounds (a) The acyclic, open-chain, fatty or aliphatic..series; (b) the cyclic or closed-chain series. |