orb - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Gateway with orbs (3)

From Middle English orbe, from Old French orbe, from Latin orbis (“circle, orb”). Compare orbit.

orb (countable and uncountable, plural orbs)

  1. A spherical body; a sphere, especially one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star
  2. Celestial sphere; one of the azure transparent spheres conceived by the ancients to be enclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions
  3. (architecture) A structural motif or finial in the shape of a sphere
  4. An orbit of an heavenly body
  5. (rare) The time period of an orbit
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V:
      Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd / By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course / Had circl'd his full Orbe, the birth mature / Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons.
  6. (poetic) The eye, seen as a luminous and spherical entity
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      A drop serene hath quenched their orbs.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Assignation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 260:
      Painfully, he forced his hot eyelids to unclose, and his distended orbs sought for some object whereon to fix; they met the patch of grass, yet red with the blood of Walter Maynard.
  7. (poetic) Any revolving circular body, such as a wheel
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      The orbs Of his fierce chariot rolled.
  8. (rare) A sphere of action.
  9. A globus cruciger; a ceremonial sphere used to represent royal or imperial power
  10. A translucent sphere appearing in flash photography (Orb (optics))
  11. (military) A body of soldiers drawn up in a circle, as for defence, especially infantry to repel cavalry.
  12. (astrology, uncountable) Amount of deviation from the closest perfect aspect.

spherical body

period of time marked off by the revolution of a heavenly body — see year

poetic: a revolving circular body; a wheel

sphere of action

orb (third-person singular simple present orbs, present participle orbing, simple past and past participle orbed)

  1. (poetic, transitive) To form into an orb or circle.
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Let each
      His adamantine coat gird well, and each
      Fit well his helm, gripe fast his orbed shield
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 41:
      And is it that the haze of grief
      ⁠Hath stretch’d my former joy so great? […]
      Or that the past will always win
      ⁠A glory from its being far;
      ⁠And orb into the perfect star
      We saw not, when we moved therein?
  2. (poetic, intransitive) To become round like an orb.
  3. (poetic, transitive) To encircle; to surround; to enclose.

From Old French orb (“blind”), from Latin orbus (“destitute”).

orb (plural orbs)

  1. (architecture) A blank window or panel.
    • 1845, Robert Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral:
      small blank windows or panels, for in later times such panels were called orbs, blind windows

From Latin orbus. Compare Romanian orb.

orb m (feminine singular orbe, masculine plural orghi, feminine plural orbi)

  1. blind
  2. (figurative) ignorant
  3. (figurative) uncultivated, unrefined, uncivilized

Inherited from Old Catalan orb (also spelled horp), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”). Compare Occitan òrb, Italian orbo, Romanian orb.

orb (feminine orba, masculine plural orbs, feminine plural orbes)

  1. blind
    Synonym: cec

orb m (uncountable)

  1. a fungal disease of wheat and other cereals

Borrowed from Finnish orpo, from Proto-Finnic *orpoi, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *orpa, borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hárbʰas. Cognate with Hungarian árva.

PIE word
*h₃órbʰos

orb (genitive orvu, partitive orbu)

  1. orphan
Declension of orb (ÕS type 22e/riik, b-v gradation)
singular plural
nominative orb orvud
accusative nom.
gen. orvu
genitive orbude
partitive orbu orbeorbusid
illative orbuorvusse orbudesseorvesse
inessive orvus orbudesorves
elative orvust orbudestorvest
allative orvule orbudeleorvele
adessive orvul orbudelorvel
ablative orvult orbudeltorvelt
translative orvuks orbudeksorveks
terminative orvuni orbudeni
essive orvuna orbudena
abessive orvuta orbudeta
comitative orvuga orbudega

Inherited from Latin orbus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”). Compare Italian orbo. Doublet of rob.

orb m or n (feminine singular oarbă, masculine plural orbi, feminine/neuter plural oarbe)

  1. blind

orb m (plural orbi, feminine equivalent oarbă)

  1. blind man