Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Resembling an egg in shape.
- adjective Resembling an ellipse in shape; elliptical.
- noun An egg-shaped or elliptical form or figure.
- noun An elliptical track, as for racing or athletic events.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of, pertaining to, or used in an ovation: as, triumphal, oval, and civil crowns.
- noun Specifically, in athletics, an elliptical field, or one on which an elliptical track is laid out.
- Of or pertaining to an egg.
- Having the shape of or resembling the longitudinal section of an egg; hence, elliptical.
- In zoology and botany, broadly elliptical, or elliptical with the breadth considerably more than half the length.
- noun A figure in the general shape of the lengthwise outline of an egg, or resembling the longitudinal section of an egg.
- noun Something which has such a shape, as a plot of ground, or an open place in a city: as, Berkeley oval; “The Oval” at Kensington, London.
- noun Specifically, same as
cartouche , 4. - noun See the adjectives.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Of or pertaining to eggs; done in the egg, or inception.
- adjective Having the figure of an egg; oblong and curvilinear, with one end broader than the other, or with both ends of about the same breadth; in popular usage, elliptical.
- adjective (Bot.) Broadly elliptical.
- adjective (Mech.) a lathe chuck so constructed that work attached to it, and cut by the turning tool in the usual manner, becomes of an oval form.
- noun A body or figure in the shape of an egg, or popularly, of an ellipse.
- noun (Geom.) the locus of a point the product of whose distances from two fixed points is constant; -- so called from Cassini, who first investigated the curve. Thus, in the diagram, if P moves so that P A.P B is constant, the point P describes a Cassinian oval. The locus may consist of a single closed line, as shown by the dotted line, or of two equal ovals about the points A and B.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
shape rather like anegg or anellipse . - noun A sporting arena etc. of this shape.
- adjective Having the shape of an oval.
- adjective Of or pertaining to an
ovum .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it
- adjective rounded like an egg
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Only legacy he can give at this time is to clear the table in oval office for Obama and get out of the way. —
The Early Word: A Tale of Two Presidents - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2008
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You are banned for life because of your indecent activities in oval office.
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The windows were custom built in oval shapes; the doors were of inlaid panels with rounded corners that meant all the doorjambs and casings had to be hand carved.
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The windows were custom built in oval shapes; the doors were of inlaid panels with rounded corners that meant all the doorjambs and casings had to be hand carved.
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The third baker, if I recall correctly, then rolled the rumpled cylinder flat into a large, thin oval, but using granulated sugar as the rolling medium.
Pasta pastry 2006
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Hot chocolate is served at his restaurants in oval-shaped cups tapered at one end called "hug mugs" that are cradled in hands.
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“The empty front lawn requiring mowing, watering and weeding previously on this location has been removed,” reads a placard set amid veggies in oval planting beds fronting the street.
Edible Estates 2005
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To allow a wide hook gap, the top of the oval is flattened, while the rounded bottom acts as a keel to hold the jig upright.
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Today, the Ford oval is a familiar sight in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, and the makeup of Ford's worldwide management team represents a rich diversity of nationalities and cultures.
The Auto Industry: Structuring for Survival in the Global Market of the '90s 1992
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A certain oval basket with a vaulted cover, of which specimens are preserved in the British Museum, seems still to be the pattern most in demand at Assûan.
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