n.
- An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs: Sunspots increase and decrease in intensity in an 11-year cycle.
- A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon: A year constitutes a cycle of the seasons.
- A periodically repeated sequence of events: the cycle of birth, growth, and death; a cycle of reprisal and retaliation.
- The orbit of a celestial body.
- A long period of time; an age.
- The aggregate of traditional poems or stories organized around a central theme or hero: the Arthurian cycle.
- A series of poems or songs on the same theme: Schubert's song cycles.
- A bicycle, motorcycle, or similar vehicle.
- Botany. A circular or whorled arrangement of flower parts such as those of petals or sepals.
- Linguistics. In generative grammar, the principle that allows an ordered set of linguistic rules or operations to apply repeatedly to successive stages of a derivation. Often used with the.
v., -cled, -cling, -cles. v.intr.
- To occur in or pass through a cycle.
- To move in or as if in a cycle.
- To ride a bicycle, motorcycle, or similar vehicle.
To use in or put through a cycle: cycled the heavily soiled laundry twice; cycling the recruits through eight weeks of basic training.
[Middle English, from Late Latin cyclus, from Greek kuklos, circle.]
cycler cy'cler n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
