meteor

meteor
meteorlike, adj.
/mee"tee euhr, -awr'/, n.
1. Astron.
a. a meteoroid that has entered the earth's atmosphere.
b. a transient fiery streak in the sky produced by a meteoroid passing through the earth's atmosphere; a shooting star or bolide.
2. any person or object that moves, progresses, becomes famous, etc., with spectacular speed.
3. (formerly) any atmospheric phenomenon, as hail or a typhoon.
4. (cap.) Mil. Britain's first operational jet fighter, a twin-engine aircraft that entered service in 1944.
[1570-80; < NL meteorum < Gk metéoron meteor, a thing in the air, n. use of neut. of metéoros raised in the air, equiv. to met- MET- + eor- (var. s. of aéirein to raise) + -os adj. suffix]

* * *

Streak of light in the sky that results when a particle or small chunk of stony or metallic matter from space enters Earth's atmosphere and is vapourized by friction.

The term is sometimes applied to the falling object itself, properly called a meteoroid. Most meteoroids, traveling at five times the speed of sound or more, burn up in the upper atmosphere, but a large one may survive its fiery plunge and reach the surface as a solid body (meteorite). See also meteor shower.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Meteor FL.54 — Meteor FL.53 Les Meteor FL.53, FL.54 et FL.55 sont des avions monoplans de tourisme italiens dérivés de l Avia FL.3. Origine En 1953 Meteor S.p.A. achète l entreprise Francis Lombardi Cie et se lance dans la construction d’avions de tourisme. A… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Meteor FL.55 — Meteor FL.53 Les Meteor FL.53, FL.54 et FL.55 sont des avions monoplans de tourisme italiens dérivés de l Avia FL.3. Origine En 1953 Meteor S.p.A. achète l entreprise Francis Lombardi Cie et se lance dans la construction d’avions de tourisme. A… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • meteor — METEÓR, meteori, s.m. 1. Fenomen atmosferic de natură apoasă, electrică sau optică. 2. Fenomen care constă în apariţia, pe bolta cerească, a unui punct luminos (reprezentând corpuscule cosmice pătrunse în atmosfera terestră) care se mişcă cu mare …   Dicționar Român

  • METEOR — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Meteor, ligne du métro mise en service en 1998 à Paris. Meteor, magazine de science fiction. Meteor, brasseur implanté à Hochfelden, en Alsace. Meteor, un …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Météor — Meteor Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Meteor, ligne du métro mise en service en 1998 à Paris. Meteor, magazine de science fiction. Meteor, brasseur implanté à Hochfelden, en Alsace.… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Meteor! — is a 1987 children s picture book by author Patricia Polacco. Polacco is well known for writing and illustrating novels depicting events from her childhood in Michigan. Meteor! was published in 1987 by The Trumpet Club, commonly known for… …   Wikipedia

  • Meteor S.p.A. — Meteor S.p.A. Costruzioni Aeronautiche est une entreprise italienne de construction aéronautique, créée en 1947, basée dans la région Frioul Vénétie julienne. Historique La société Meteor S.p.A. a été fondée à Monfalcone le 20 mars 1947 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • METEOR — (Metric for Evaluation of Translation with Explicit ORdering) is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision. It… …   Wikipedia

  • Meteor — Sm erw. fach. (17. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus gr. metéōron n. Himmelserscheinung , einer Substantivierung von gr. metéōros in der Luft schwebend , zu gr. metaírein wegheben , zu gr. aírein heben und gr. metá .    Ebenso nndl. meteoor, ne.… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • Meteor — Me te*or, n. [F. m[ e]t[ e]ore, Gr. ?, pl. ? things in the air, fr. ? high in air, raised off the ground; ? beyond + ?, ?, a suspension or hovering in the air, fr. ? to lift, raise up.] [1913 Webster] 1. Any phenomenon or appearance in the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • meteor — metèōr m <G meteóra> DEFINICIJA 1. zast. svi događaji u atmosferi 2. astron. dio svemirskog tijela koje, padajući kroz atmosferu, ostavlja svijetleći trag FRAZEOLOGIJA kao meteor blistavo i kratko ETIMOLOGIJA grč. metéōros: uzdignut u zrak …   Hrvatski jezični portal

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”