sundial
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
From sun + dial, a clarification of dial after it was used for other objects as well.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsʌnˌdaɪ.əl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
sundial (plural sundials)
- A device measuring the time of day by the position of a shadow cast by a pole or plate (gnomon) upon an engraved series of marks.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there.
"I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."
- 1985 April 4, Daryln Brewer, “HELPFUL HARDWARE; AN ARRAY OF SUNDIALS”, in The New York Times:
- The shop carries more than a dozen sundials, mostly of bronze, plus an astrolabe ($650) of wrought iron.
- 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 60:
- It was Oxford now—the matriculation photograph, posed in the stony front quad at Corpus, the pelican on top of the sundial appearing to sit on the head of the lanky, begowned chemist at the centre of the back row.
Synonyms
- dial, horologe, horologium (archaic)
Hyponyms
- (on churches): mass dial, tide dial, scratch dial
Coordinate terms
- sciatheric (adj.); gnomon, style, cock (marker)
Translations
device noting the time of day by the position of a shadow
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Anagrams
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