cycle
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”). Doublet of wheel; see there for more.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
cycle (plural cycles)
- An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
- the cycle of the seasons, or of the year
- 1795, Edmund Burke, Thoughts and Details on Scarcity
- Wages […] bear a full proportion […] to the medium of provision during the last bad cycle of twenty years.
- A complete rotation of anything.
- A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
- electoral cycle
- 2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
- The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
- (music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.
- The interval cycle C4 consists of the pitch classes 0, 4 and 8; when starting on E, it is realised as the pitches E, G# and C.
- A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy.
- The "Ring of the Nibelung" is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner.
- A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
- Put the washing in on a warm cycle.
- the spin cycle
- A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle, or a motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels.
- Hyponyms: motorbike, motorcycle, unicycle, bicycle, tricycle, motortrike
- (baseball) A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
- Jones hit for the cycle in the game.
- (graph theory) A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
- (topology, algebraic topology) A chain whose boundary is zero.
- An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
- 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb
- 1756, Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society
- There appears to be no absolute cycle in the universe ; all is change and progression. No planet ever revolves twice precisely in the same orbit
- An age; a long period of time.
- 1842, Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall
- Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
- 1842, Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall
- An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
- 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] [Introduction to the Kalendar.]”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], OCLC 926218248, page 56:
- [H]ere we endeavour to preſent our Gard'ners with a compleat Cycle of what is requiſite to be done throughout every Moneth of the Year: [...]
- (botany) One entire round in a circle or a spire.
- a cycle or set of leaves
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)
- (weaponry) A discharge of a taser.
- (aviation) One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
Usage notesEdit
- (baseball sense): As in the example sentence, one is usually said to hit for the cycle. However, other uses also occur, such as hit a cycle and complete the cycle.
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Japanese: サイクル (saikuru)
TranslationsEdit
interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed
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complete rotation
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process that repeats itself
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music: interval cycle — see interval cycle
series of works of art
program on a washing machine etc.
baseball: single, double, triple and home run hit by the same player in the same game
topology: chain whose boundary is zero
imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens — see celestial sphere
long period of time
VerbEdit
cycle (third-person singular simple present cycles, present participle cycling, simple past and past participle cycled)
- To ride a bicycle or other cycle.
- 2021 July 28, Christian Wolmar, “Forgotten by the railways, but ripe for the exploring”, in RAIL, number 936, page 35:
- Well, during our short staycation at Humberston Fitties, just south of Cleethorpes, we cycled through the very unspoilt Lincolnshire Wolds, which are by no means flat and boring as conventional wisdom about the county suggests.
- To go through a cycle or to put through a cycle.
- (electronics) To turn power off and back on
- Avoid cycling the device unnecessarily.
- (ice hockey) To maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone by handling and passing the puck in a loop from the boards near the goal up the side boards and passing to back to the boards near the goal
- They have their cycling game going tonight.
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to ride a cycle
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to go through a cycle or to put through a cycle
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to turn power off and back on
ice hockey: to maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French, from Late Latin cyclus.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
cycle m (plural cycles)
Derived termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “cycle” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
LatinEdit
NounEdit
cycle