Gateway with orbs (3)

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

orb (countable and uncountable, 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
  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. (astrology, uncountable) Amount of deviation from the closest perfect aspect.
    • 2005, William Noah, Astrology of America, page 234:

      For example, an approaching transitioning aspect (i.e., for 120 degrees) is effective when it remains within 2 degrees of orb on either side of the perfect angle.

    • 2012, Kris Brandt Riske, Llewellyn's 2013 Sun Sign Book: Horoscopes for Everyone, page 18:

      Astrologers' opinions vary on how many degrees of orb to allow for each aspect.

    • 2015, Padam Singh, Krishna Attri, Astrology For Stock Market:

      For example Mars has its orb 7 degrees to the Sun.

mythology: transparent sphere carrying the heavenly bodies

period of time marked off by the revolution of a heavenly body

— see year

poetic: the eye, as luminous and spherical

poetic: a revolving circular body; a wheel

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

    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, 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.

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

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

From Latin orbus. Compare Romanian orb.

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

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

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

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

  1. blind
    Synonym: cec

orb m (uncountable)

  1. a fungal disease of wheat and other cereals

Borrowed from Finnish orpo, from Proto-Finnic *orpoi, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *orpa, borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hárbʰas. Cognate with Hungarian árva.

orb (genitive orvu, partitive orbu)

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

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

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

  1. blind

orb m (plural orbi, feminine equivalent oarbă)

  1. blind man