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Diurnal   /daɪˈərnəl/   Listen
adjective
Diurnal  adj.  
1.
Relating to the daytime; belonging to the period of daylight, distinguished from the night; opposed to nocturnal; as, diurnal heat; diurnal hours.
2.
Daily; recurring every day; performed in a day; going through its changes in a day; constituting the measure of a day; as, a diurnal fever; a diurnal task; diurnal aberration, or diurnal parallax; the diurnal revolution of the earth. "Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring."
3.
(Bot.) Opening during the day, and closing at night; said of flowers or leaves.
4.
(Zool.) Active by day; applied especially to the eagles and hawks among raptorial birds, and to butterflies (Diurna) among insects.
Diurnal aberration (Anat.), the aberration of light arising from the effect of the earth's rotation upon the apparent direction of motion of light.
Diurnal arc, the arc described by the sun during the daytime or while above the horizon; hence, the arc described by the moon or a star from rising to setting.
Diurnal circle, the apparent circle described by a celestial body in consequence of the earth's rotation.
Diurnal motion of the earth, the motion of the earth upon its axis which is described in twenty-four hours.
Diurnal motion of a heavenly body, that apparent motion of the heavenly body which is due to the earth's diurnal motion.
Diurnal parallax. See under Parallax.
Diurnal revolution of a planet, the motion of the planet upon its own axis which constitutes one complete revolution.
Synonyms: See Daily.



noun
Diurnal  n.  
1.
A daybook; a journal. (Obs.)
2.
(R. C. Ch.) A small volume containing the daily service for the "little hours," viz., prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline.
3.
(Zool.) A diurnal bird or insect.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Diurnal" Quotes from Famous Books



... something they could not understand. Although some of the Dunces knew their classics well and although all of them, we may presume, read the Roman satirists, one did not, typically, in Grub Street consult one's Horace with diurnal hand; one consulted the public. Literature to them was sold. They were not deeply concerned about absolute standards of right and wrong, about works of imagination which justify an entire civilization, about the problem of tradition ...
— Two Poems Against Pope - One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope and the Blatant Beast • Leonard Welsted

... be heard banging as usual. In the early days, the halcyon days of optimism, the banging would have been exhilarating to a degree; but the march of events had compelled us to reason better. The day was uncommonly quiet; even the diurnal fling at Mr. Rhodes was omitted. Lies, rumours, sensations, fabrications were still rampant. A poster in all the paraphernalia of Official authority, proclaiming the relief of Mafeking—four months too soon!—adorned the walls of the Town House. General Buller, we were informed, ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... and her diurnal round alike, therefore, does mother Nature sympathize with man, and picture forth his fate, in type of autumnal decay, and wintry darkness, and night buried seed, in sign of vernal bud, and summer light, and ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... so I have heard my uncle, who was a learned hedgehog, say,—"the animal man is a diurnal animal; he comes out and feeds in the daytime." But a second cousin, who had travelled as far as Covent Garden, and who lived for many years in a London kitchen, told me that he thought my uncle was wrong, and that man comes out and feeds at night. He said he knew of at least one house in which ...
— Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

... its diurnal epochs, of working and slumbering; and now, for the second time, most European and African mortals are asleep. But here, in this Whirlpool of Words, sleep falls not; the Night spreads her coverlid of Darkness over it in vain. Within ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle


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