vertical circle
Americannoun
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a great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the zenith.
noun
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astronomy a great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the zenith and perpendicular to the horizon
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A great circle on the celestial sphere that passes through the zenith and the nadir and thus is perpendicular to the horizon.
Etymology
Origin of vertical circle
First recorded in 1550–60
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The flagman swings his lamp, or his flag or hand, in a vertical circle at half-arm's length across the track.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the great theodolite, with its vertical circle and telescope adapted to the observation of the heavenly bodies, as used by nautical astronomers, commonly called an alt-azimuth instrument, is almost an observatory per se.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
He gave the inner end a light upward thrust, and the door swung back in its vertical circle until it again stood upright in the opening.
From Into the Primitive by Bennett, Robert Ames
A vertical circle passing through the sun may also be seen.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8 "Haller, Albrecht" to "Harmonium" by Various
Rhumb, rumb, or rum, n. any vertical circle, hence any point of the compass.—ns.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.