harvest moon
The moon which is full within a fortnight of the autumnal equinox (22 or 23 Sept.), and which rises for several nights nearly at the same hour, at points successively further north on the eastern horizon.
| 1706 Watts Horæ Lyr., Vict. Poles over Osman 5 Wks. 1813 IX. 275/1 Seventy harvest-moons Fill'd his wide gran'ries with autumnal joy. 1747 Ferguson in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 538 All the Phænomena of the Harvest-Moon become very plain by this additional Part. 1803 Leyden Scenes Infancy i. 267 The waning harvest-moon shone cold and bright. 1832 Lytton Eugene A. i. xii, The broad harvest-moon was in the heavens, and filled the air as with a softer and holier day. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. iv. §30. |