Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to a comet, or to comets in general; cometary: as, cometic forms; cometic movements.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Relating to a comet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relating to a comet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or resembling a comet

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

comet +‎ -ic

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Examples

  • As motion is the normal condition of matter, and is the producer of electricity, therefore electric actions, concentrated in space, necessarily gathers cometic and nebulous matter from space, the materials, through incandescence, for future globes, with orbits contracting in proportion to condensation, its maximum of attraction.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

  • The rays of the sun in passing through or near the nucleus are so modified as to become visible in their further progress through the cometic atmosphere, while all the rest remain invisible.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

  • Others have also remarked the same, and if we couple this fact with the suggestion just made, we are justified in suspecting that a greater quantity of cometic dust comes down the northern pole of the vortex than down the southern.

    Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence T. Bassnett

  • What we call the tail is merely a radius of the cometic atmosphere made visible, and as the comet moves through space, only different portions of the atmosphere come in sight, in obedience to the ordinary laws of light.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

  • The sphere at the perihelion would envelop the sun, and as a noticeable reduction is sometimes found in its so-called tail, the cometic atmosphere may impart to the sun at that time whatever is necessary to its use.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

  • This escaping ether, in passing through the attenuated layers composing the surface of the nucleus, impels the lighter atoms of cometic dust further from the centre, and as for as this _doubly_ attenuated atmosphere of isolated particles extends, so far will the escaping ether be rendered luminous.

    Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence T. Bassnett

  • Every effort had been made to so adjust the electric charge upon the ships that they would be repelled from the cometic mass, but, owing apparently to electric changes affecting the clashing mass of meteoric bodies which constituted the head of the comet, we found it impossible to escape from its influence.

    Edison's Conquest of Mars Garrett Putnam Serviss

  • The sword shaped tails, at variance with the common theory, can be accounted for by supposing a slight difference in density or material in the cometic atmosphere, which will deflect the light as seen.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

  • The predicted reappearance in the middle of the century of Halley's comet intensified scientific interest in cometic orbits.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne 1840-1916 1913

  • The sculls, as far as they were immersed, were like bars of glistening silver; under them passed the fish, leaving cometic tails; each coral clump was a lamp, lending its lustre till the great lagoon was luminous as a lit-up ballroom.

    The Blue Lagoon: a romance 1907

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