Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of striking against or driving upon something; active or energetic approach.
- noun In astronomy, the approach of any planet to a conjunction with the sun or a star.
- noun 3. A coming to land, as of a vessel: as, “the appulse of the ark,”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A driving or running towards; approach; impulse; also, the act of striking against.
- noun (Astron.) The near approach of one heavenly body to another, or to the meridian; a coming into conjunction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An energetic
movement towards or against something - noun astronomy
conjunction oroccultation - noun astronomy a close
approach of two heavenly bodies
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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This interesting planet makes a very near appulse to Jupiter on the 16th at
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 276, October 6, 1827 Various
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It may, then, be asserted with safety that the close appulse of a comet would not be attended with any fatal results; and that this security principally consists in its great velocity, which would so swiftly remove it to a distance.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 532, February 4, 1832 Various
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This arises from the possible appulse of the comet to the planet Pallas, whose mass, being so small, would more sensibly be disturbed by such an appulse than the earth.
Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence T. Bassnett
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The first of these is, the introduction of the American method of observing transits, by completing a galvanic circuit by means of a touch of the finger at the instant of appulse of the transiting body to the wire of the instrument, which circuit will then animate a magnet that will make an impression upon a moving paper.
Autobiography Airy, George Biddell, Sir 1896
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I have heard, that if these sublime geniuses are awakened from their reveries by the _appulse_ of external circumstances, they start, and exhibit all the perturbation and amazement of _cataleptic_ patients.
Tales and Novels — Volume 08 Maria Edgeworth 1808
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I have heard, that if these sublime genuises are wakened from their reveries by the appulse of external circumstances, they start, and exhibit all the perturbation and amazement of cataleptic patients.
Letters for Literary Ladies: To Which is Added, An Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification 1798
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Thirdly, that the constitution and motion of the parts must be such, that the appulse of the luminous body may be communicated or propagated through it to the greatest imaginable distance in the least imaginable time, though I see no reason to affirm, that it must be in an instant: For I know not any one Experiment or observation that does prove it.
Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon Robert Hooke 1669
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It is my hope, and my presumption, that such a place of appulse may be found, where we may take our stand, and from whence we may have a full view of the mighty expanse before us; from whence also we may descry the original design, and order, of all those objects, which by length of time, and their own remoteness, have been rendered so confused and uncertain.
A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. Jacob Bryant 1759
chained_bear commented on the word appulse
"... in astronomy, the approach of any planet towards a star or the sun. According to some authors, the word appulse is employed when two luminaries are apparently in contact; while others, extending its signification, use it as synonimous (sic) with occultation, when the one body is completely obscured or hid by the other."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 19
October 14, 2008