See Also: TCA cycle(medicine)
c4 cycle(medicine)
c3 cycle(medicine)
cycle(1)(dictionary)
cycle(2)(dictionary)
Pay Cycle(casino)
Cycle(medicine)
Cycle(casino)
substrate cycle(medicine)
ornithine cycle(medicine)

cycle(1) (iou)



cycle noun. LME.
[French, or late Latin cyclus from Greek kuklos circle: in sense 5 an abbreviation.]
A recurrent period of definite duration; a period in which a certain series of events or phenomena is completed, usu. as part of a repeating succession of similar periods; loosely an age. LME.
lunar cycle, Metonic cycle, Sothic cycle, Victorian cycle, etc.
Tennyson Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. Conan Doyle If the cycle of nine days holds good then we shall have the Professor at his worst to-night.
A circle or orbit in the heavens. arch. M17.
A recurrent round or course of events or phenomena; a series of successive events through which something runs to completion. M17.
vicious cycle: see VICIOUS adjective.
Shelley Or hadst thou waited the full cycle, when Thy spirit should have filled its crescent sphere. E. Wilson He seems to have imagined history as a series of repetitive cycles. L. D. Stamp As the cycle of erosion progresses..the surface is reduced to a monotonous level..plain. D. Lodge An almost unbroken cycle of grants, fellowships, leaves of absence and alcoholic cures.
b. spec. (chiefly Science). A recurring series of successive operations, reactions, or states, e.g. in the working of an internal-combustion engine, in the alternation of an electric current or a wave, or in the metabolism of an organism. Also (ellipt.), a cycle per second (= HERTZ 2). M19.
carbon cycle, Carnot's cycle, Krebs cycle, life cycle, menstrual cycle, open cycle, Otto cycle, Rankine cycle, Stirling cycle, thermal cycle, tricarboxylic acid cycle, etc.
c. Linguistics. More fully transformational cycle. (The application of) a set of transformational rules operating successively at each level of structure. M20.
A complete set or series; spec. a series of poems, songs (more fully song cycle), etc., composed round a central event or idea. M17.
R. Macaulay The Arthurian cycle, the cycle of Charlemagne,..the cycle of Christthese are the European folk tales which filled the Middle Ages. A. C. Boult Our last pre-war memory is Toscanini's Beethoven Cycle.
A bicycle, tricycle, or similar machine. L19.
motor cycle, pedal cycle, etc.
Comb.: cycle clip = BICYCLE clip; cycle track, cycle way: reserved for cyclists.