aurora

Definitions

1. 1.The rise, dawn, or beginning. Hawthorne.
2. 2.(Class. Myth.) The Roman personification of the dawn of day; the goddess of the morning. The poets represented her a rising out of the ocean, in a chariot, with rosy fingers dropping gentle dew.
3. 3.(Bot.) A species of crowfoot. Johnson.
4. 4.The aurora borealis or aurora australis (northern or southern lights). Aurora borealis (, i. e., northern daybreak; popularly called northern lights. A luminous meteoric phenomenon, visible only at night, and supposed to be of electrical origin. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the northern horizon; when reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms what is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipping needle points. Occasionally the aurora appears as an arch of light across the heavens from east to west. Sometimes it assumes a wavy appearance, and the streams of light are then called merry dancers. They assume a variety of colors, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood color. The Aurora australis (is a corresponding phenomenon in the southern hemisphere, the streams of light ascending in the same manner from near the southern horizon.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "aurora" mean?
• What is another word for "aurora"?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is aurora.

• What is the rise, dawn, or beginning. Hawthorne called?
• What is the Roman personification of the dawn of day; the goddess of the morning. The poets represented her a rising out of the ocean, in a chariot, with rosy fingers dropping gentle dew called?