cycle
English
Etymology
From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Hellenic *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”).
Doublet of wheel; see there for more.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsaɪkl̩/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsaɪk(ə)l/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪkəl
- Hyphenation: cyc‧le
Noun
cycle (plural cycles)
- An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
- the cycle of the seasons, or of the year
- 1795 November (date written), Edmund Burke, Thoughts and Details on Scarcity, […], London: […] [T. Gillet] for F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J[ohn] Hatchard, […], published 1800, OCLC 1326179942, page 6:
- VVages have been tvvice raiſed in my time, and they bear a full proportion, or even a greater than formerly, to the medium of proviſion during the laſt bad cycle of tvventy years.
- A complete rotation of anything.
- A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
- electoral cycle menstrual cycle news cycle
- 2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
- The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
- (music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.
- The interval cycle C4 consists of the pitch classes 0, 4 and 8; when starting on E, it is realised as the pitches E, G# and C.
- A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy.
- The "Ring of the Nibelung" is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner.
- A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
- Put the washing in on a warm cycle.
- the spin cycle
- A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle, or a motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels.
- Hyponyms: motorbike, motorcycle, unicycle, bicycle, tricycle, motortrike
- (baseball) A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
- Jones hit for the cycle in the game.
- (graph theory) A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
- (topology, algebraic topology) A chain whose boundary is zero.
- An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
- 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb
- 1858, [anonymous], “Appendix”, in Edmund Burke, The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated; Being a Reprint of Edmund Burke’s Celebrated Essay, Entitled “A Vindication of Natural Society:” […], London: Holyoake and Company, […], OCLC 914944134, page 54:
- There appears to be no absolute cycle in the universe; all is change and progression. No planet ever revolves twice precisely in the same orbit.
-
- An age; a long period of time.
- 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, OCLC 1008064829, page 110:
- Thro' the shadow of the world we sweep into the younger day: / Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
-
- An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
- 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] [Introduction to the Kalendar.]”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], OCLC 926218248, page 56:
- [H]ere we endeavour to preſent our Gard'ners with a compleat Cycle of what is requiſite to be done throughout every Moneth of the Year: […]
-
- (botany) One entire round in a circle or a spire.
- 1857, Asa Gray, First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology:
- a cycle or set of leaves
-
- (weaponry) A discharge of a taser.
- 2014, R.T. Wyant; Thomas Burns, Risk Management of Less Lethal Options, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 211:
- Officers have made the mistake of applying many Taser cycles, expecting the suspect to relent.
-
- (aviation) One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
- (sports) A scheduled period of time of weeks or months wherein a performance-enhancing substance or, by extension, supplement is applied, to be followed by another one where it is not or the dosage is lower.
- The deterioration of his physique may be a result of his being off cycle.
Usage notes
- (baseball sense): As in the example sentence, one is usually said to hit for the cycle. However, other uses also occur, such as hit a cycle and complete the cycle.
Derived terms
- acyclic
- Born-Haber cycle
- break the cycle
- business cycle
- Calvin cycle
- carbon cycle
- carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle
- Carnot cycle
- Carnot's cycle
- cell cycle
- citric acid cycle
- clock cycle
- CNO cycle
- combined cycle
- combined cycle power plant
- Cori cycle
- cycle chord
- cycle group
- cycle of fifths
- cycle polo
- cycle shorts
- cycle sort
- cycle threshold
- cycle time
- cyclic
- duty cycle
- estrous cycle
- execution cycle
- exercise cycle
- four-cycle
- glyoxylate cycle
- Hamiltonian cycle
- Hampson-Linde cycle
- hermeneutic cycle
- hydrogen cycle
- hydrolic cycle
- instruction cycle
- Joule's cycle
- Krebs cycle
- life cycle
- limit cycle
- love cycle
- lunar cycle
- lysogenic cycle
- lytic cycle
- machine cycle
- menstrual cycle
- Metonic cycle
- Milankovitch cycle
- motor cycle
- motor-cycle
- nasal cycle
- nitrogen cycle
- operating cycle
- ornithine cycle
- Otto cycle
- ovarian cycle
- pedal cycle
- phosphorus cycle
- power-cycle
- power cycle
- Rankine cycle
- sixty cycle hum
- software life cycle
- solar cycle
- Sothic cycle
- sulfur cycle
- sulfur-iodine cycle
- sulphur cycle
- supercontinent cycle
- TCA cycle
- topping cycle
- tricarboxylic acid cycle
- up-cycle
- urea cycle
- uterine cycle
- vicious cycle
- virtuous cycle
- Walden cycle
- walk cycle
- water cycle
Related terms
- bicycle
- cycle clip
- cycle lane
- cycle path
- cycle rack
- cycle rickshaw
- cycle track
- cycleway
- motorcycle
- quadricycle
- tricycle
- unicycle
Descendants
- → Japanese: サイクル (saikuru)
Translations
interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed
|
complete rotation
|
process that repeats itself
|
member of the sequence formed by such a process
|
music: interval cycle — see interval cycle
series of works of art
|
program on a washing machine etc.
|
bicycle, tricycle, motorcycle etc. — See also translations at bicycle
|
baseball: single, double, triple and home run hit by the same player in the same game
graph theory: closed walk or path
|
topology: chain whose boundary is zero
imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens — see celestial sphere
long period of time
orderly list for a given time
|
botany: entire round in a circle or a spire
|
Verb
cycle (third-person singular simple present cycles, present participle cycling, simple past and past participle cycled)
- To ride a bicycle or other cycle.
- 2021 July 28, Christian Wolmar, “Forgotten by the railways, but ripe for the exploring”, in RAIL, number 936, page 35:
- Well, during our short staycation at Humberston Fitties, just south of Cleethorpes, we cycled through the very unspoilt Lincolnshire Wolds, which are by no means flat and boring as conventional wisdom about the county suggests.
-
- To go through a cycle or to put through a cycle.
- (electronics) To turn power off and back on
- Avoid cycling the device unnecessarily.
- (ice hockey) To maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone by handling and passing the puck in a loop from the boards near the goal up the side boards and passing to back to the boards near the goal
- They have their cycling game going tonight.
Related terms
- recycle
Translations
to ride a cycle
|
to go through a cycle or to put through a cycle
|
to turn power off and back on
|
ice hockey: to maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone
|
Anagrams
- leccy
French
Etymology
From Middle French, from Late Latin cyclus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sikl/
Audio (file) File:LL-Q1860 (fr)-Benoît Prieur-cycle.wav (file)
Noun
cycle m (plural cycles)
- cycle
- (Switzerland) middle school, junior high school
Derived terms
- cycle de l'eau
- cycle du carbone
Further reading
- “cycle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Noun
cycle
- vocative singular of cyclus