Wiktionary

orb

See also: ORB, and òrb

English

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Gateway with orbs (3)

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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

Noun

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orb (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
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Superstition”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      The schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      You seem to me as Dian in her orb.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, 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:
      In orbs / Of circuit inexpressible they stood, / Orb within orb.
  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. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (astrology) Amount of deviation from the closest perfect aspect.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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spherical body
period of time marked off by the revolution of a heavenly body — see year

Verb

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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
    • 1842, James Russell Lowell, sonnet:
      a full-orbed sun
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXIV, 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.

Etymology 2

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

Noun

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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

References

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Anagrams

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Aromanian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Latin orbus. Compare Romanian orb.

Adjective

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

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

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

  1. blind
    Synonym: cec

Noun

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orb m (uncountable)

  1. a fungal disease of wheat and other cereals

References

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Estonian

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Etymology

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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

Noun

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orb (genitive orvu, partitive orbu)

  1. orphan

Declension

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Declension of orb (ÕS type 22e/riik, b-v gradation)
singular plural
nominative orb orvud
accusative nom.
gen. orvu
genitive orbude
partitive orbu orbe
orbusid
illative orbu
orvusse 		orbudesse
orvesse
inessive orvus orbudes
orves
elative orvust orbudest
orvest
allative orvule orbudele
orvele
adessive orvul orbudel
orvel
ablative orvult orbudelt
orvelt
translative orvuks orbudeks
orveks
terminative orvuni orbudeni
essive orvuna orbudena
abessive orvuta orbudeta
comitative orvuga orbudega

Further reading

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  • “orb”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
  • “orb”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
  • orb in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

Romanian

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

  1. blind

Declension

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Declension of orb
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite orb oarbă orbi oarbe
definite orbul oarba orbii oarbele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite orb oarbe orbi oarbe
definite orbului oarbei orbilor oarbelor

Noun

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orb m (plural orbi, feminine equivalent oarbă)

  1. blind man

Declension

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Declension of orb
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) orb orbul (niște) orbi orbii
genitive/dative (unui) orb orbului (unor) orbi orbilor
vocative orbule orbilor

Derived terms

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See also

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