TROPIC • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tropic

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/trˈɑpɪk/ Listen

noun

Tropic n.

(Astron.) One of the two small circles of the celestial sphere, situated on each side of the equator, at a distance of 23° 28', and parallel to it, which the sun just reaches at its greatest declination north or south, and from which it turns again toward the equator, the northern circle being called the Tropic of Cancer, and the southern the Tropic of Capricorn, from the names of the two signs at which they touch the ecliptic.

(Geog.)

(a)

One of the two parallels of terrestrial latitude corresponding to the celestial tropics, and called by the same names.

(b)

pl. The region lying between these parallels of latitude, or near them on either side. "The brilliant flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the greenhouse and the saloon."

adjective

Tropic adj. (Chem.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, an acid obtained from atropine and certain other alkaloids, as a white crystalline substance slightly soluble in water.

Tropic adj. Of or pertaining to the tropics; tropical.

Tropic bird (Zool.), any one of three species of oceanic belonging to the genus Phaethon, found chiefly in tropical seas. They are mostly white, and have two central tail feathers very long and slender. The yellow-billed tropic bird. Phaethon flavirostris (called also boatswain), is found on the Atlantic coast of America, and is common at the Bermudas, where it breeds.

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Etymology of 'Tropic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tropic" Quotes from Famous Books

... be alert to keep up with Jack Meredith—to understand his speech; and he rather liked the necessity, which was a change after the tropic indolence in ...

— With Edged Tools • Henry Seton Merriman

... the—thing—these lights held firm and steady. They were seven—like seven little moons. One was of a pearly pink, one of a delicate nacreous blue, one of lambent saffron, one of the emerald you see in the shallow waters of tropic isles; a deathly white; a ghostly amethyst; and one of the silver that is seen only when the flying ...

— The Moon Pool • A. Merritt

... see how low man can fall, you must go to the tropic jungle, where geniality of climate, plenty and variety of food, are in themselves a cause of degradation to the soul, as long as the Spirit of Christ is absent from it. Not in the barren desert, but in the rich forest, wanders the true savage, eating and eating all day long, like the ...

— Town and Country Sermons • Charles Kingsley

... early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched near a thousand miles to the south of the tropic; but the heat of the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the un-warlike natives of those sequestered regions. [2] The northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany ...

— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... orator having drawn for the letters, the urns are prepared accordingly by one of the commissioners and the two censors. The preparation of the urns is After this manner. If the Senate be to elect, for example, the list called the tropic of ...

— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington

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