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elliptical

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Acronyms, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
elliptical
of speech, literary style, etc.
a. very condensed or concise, often so as to be obscure or ambiguous
b. circumlocutory or long-winded


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Now, of those attendant bodies which the sun maintains in their elliptical orbits by the great law of gravitation, some few in turn possess satellites.
Belfast and Maston-- that it had deviated from its course from some unknown cause, and had not reached its destination; but that it had passed near enough to be retained by the lunar attraction; that its rectilinear movement had been changed to a circular one, and that following an elliptical orbit round the star of night it had become its satellite.
When we see an object, say a penny, we seem to be aware of its "real" shape we have the impression of something circular, not of something elliptical.
 
 
 
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