Forms: 4 esclepis, (enclips), 4–7 eclips, 5–6 eclypse, (5 ecleps, -ypce, 6 eclip(s)is, 7 eeclipse), 4– eclipse. [a. OF. eclipse, esclipse, ad. L. eclīpsis, Gr. ἔκλειψις, noun of action f. ἐκλείπειν to be eclipsed, literally to forsake its accustomed place, fail to appear.]
1. Astron. An interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention of some other body, either between it and the eye, or between the luminous body and that illuminated by it; as of the moon, by passing through the earth’s shadow; of the sun, by the moon coming between it and the observer; or of a satellite, by entering the shadow of its primary. Also in phrase, In eclipse. For annular, partial, total eclipse, see those adjs. Cf. OCCULTATION.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16814. Oft siths haue we sene … esclepis [v.r. clipes, clyppes, clippis] of sun and mone.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth. (1868), 133. Whan þe moone is in the eclips.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 140. Þis eclipse . þat ouer-closeþ now þe sonne.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxlvi. 289. In ye yere of our Lord .xii.c.xxii. … apered a great eclypce of the sone.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. (1872), 55. In the tyme of the eclipis, the eird is betuix the mune and the soune.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. ii. 112. These late Eclipses in the Sun and Moone portend no good to vs.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 100. That fatal … bark Built in the eclipse.
1750. Harris, Hermes, Wks. (1841), 119. Often had mankind seen the sun in eclipse, before they knew its cause to be the moon’s interposition.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens, 258. An eclipse of Titan.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 33. The Sun cloak’d himself in wan eclipse.
b. transf. Absence, cessation, or deprivation of light, temporary or permanent; techn. the periodical obscuration of the light from a light-house.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 305. A vniuersall derknes & eclipse was ouer all the worlde.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Buckhm., xciii. With fowle eclypse had reft my syght away.
1671. Milton, Samson, 80. Blind among enemies … Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 736. The eclipse That metropolitan volcanoes make.
1830. Tennyson, Burial of Love. His eyes in eclipse.
1858. Merc. Mar. Mag., V. 186. A Fixed Red Light, varied by flashes preceded and followed by short eclipses.
2. fig. Obscuration, obscurity; dimness; loss of brilliance or splendor.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 645. This generall and unnaturall eclipse of Christian manners, doth presage the destruction of the world to be at hand.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xxi. 140. God oftentimes leaves the brightest men in an eclipse.
1650. Bounds Publ. Obed. (ed. 2), 18. How knowes he … that the … Power is … in an Ecclipse?
a. 1711. Ken, Serm., Wks. (1838), 114. Goodness has an inseparable splendour, which can never suffer a total eclipse.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 31. When I … declare the soul’s eclipse Not the soul’s extinction.
† 3. A fraudulent device in dice-playing; (see quot.). Obs.
1711. J. Puckle, Club (1721), 10. Gamesters have the Top, Peep, Eclipse [note, Securing within the Little Finger, a Dice on the Outside of the Box], Thumbing, &c.
