a. [f. prec. + -AL.]
1. That has the form of an ellipse; pertaining to ellipses.
1656. Hobbes, Six Lessons, Wks. 1845, VII. 305. The cone described by the subtense of the … elliptical line.
1755. B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sci., I. v. 23. They all move in Orbits, which are more or less oval, or (as the Astronomers call it) Elliptical.
1812–6. J. Playfair, Nat. Phil., II. 185. The orbit of the fourth satellite is sensibly elliptical.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxvii. 225. I have been enabled to refer all the phenomena of the action of metals to a new species of polarisation, which I have called elliptical polarisation.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., xx. 354. In the great elliptical path of the earth, the sun occupies one of these foci.
b. Elliptical compasses: = elliptic compasses. † Elliptical dial, a small pocket-dial (Kersey). Also in Bailey 1721–90, Chambers 1751.
c. Comb.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., v. (1858), 53. Leaves *elliptical-lanceolate.
2. Gram. Of sentences and phrases: Defective, lacking a word or words that must be supplied to complete the sense. Of style, etc.: Characterized by ellipsis.
1778. Bp. Lowth, Isaiah (ed. 12), 313, note. It was necessary to add a word or two in the version to supply the elliptical expression of the Hebrew.
1828. Whately, Rhetoric, in Encycl. Metrop., 284/1. Aristotle’s Style … is frequently so elliptical as to be dry and obscure.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. iii. § 1 (1876), 29. Production and productive, are … elliptical expressions, involving the iden of a something produced.
1884. Traill, in Macm. Mag., Oct., 441/1. Carlyle’s violently elliptical manner.
3. Omitted by ellipsis. ? nonce-use.
1829. W. Duncan, Greek Test., Pref. He has given at the foot of the page … many of the principal elliptical words.
