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Capricorn   Listen
noun
Capricorn  n.  
1.
(Astron.) The tenth sign of zodiac, into which the sun enters at the winter solstice, about December 21. See Tropic. "The sun was entered into Capricorn."
2.
(Astron.) A southern constellation, represented on ancient monuments by the figure of a goat, or a figure with its fore part like a fish.
Capricorn beetle (Zool.), any beetle of the family Carambucidae; one of the long-horned beetles. The larvae usually bore into the wood or bark of trees and shrubs and are often destructive. See Girdler, Pruner.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Capricorn" Quotes from Famous Books



... the new rice is the occasion of a family festival called Pongol. The new rice is boiled in a new pot on a fire which is kindled at noon on the day when, according to Hindoo astrologers, the sun enters the tropic of Capricorn. The boiling of the pot is watched with great anxiety by the whole family, for as the milk boils, so will the coming year be. If the milk boils rapidly, the year will be prosperous; but it will be the reverse if the milk boils slowly. Some ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... harbour with the wind at S.W. we proceeded along the land, keeping it always in sight, and keeping up frequent intercourse with the inhabitants, until we at length went beyond the tropic of Capricorn, so far south that the south pole became elevated thirty-two degrees above the horizon[5]. We had already lost sight of the Ursa Minor; the Ursa Major appeared very low, almost touching the northern horizon; ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... extravagant outrages against the laws of their country, and the peace of their fellow-subjects. Having staggered up to the table, the senior, who undertook to be spokesman, saluted Cadwallader with, "How dost do, old Capricorn? Thou seem'st to be a most venerable pimp, and, I doubt not, hast abundance of discretion. Here is this young whoremaster, a true chip of the old venereal block his father, and myself, come for a comfortable ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... to Capricorn,' said Bailey, 'and brother to Cauliflower. He's been through the winders of two chaney shops since we've had him, and was sold for killin' his missis. ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... that the waxing moon seemed but a pale yellow ghost of itself, hanging huge in the sunset. In a South African city a great man had married, and the streets were alight to welcome his return with his bride. "Even the skies have illuminated," said the flatterer. Under Capricorn, two negro lovers, daring the wild beasts and evil spirits, for love of one another, crouched together in a cane brake where the fire-flies hovered. "That is our star," they whispered, and felt strangely comforted by the sweet brilliance ...
— Tales of Space and Time • Herbert George Wells

... moon hath waxed and wasted, Lavish of her dew-bright horn; And the wheeling sun hath hasted Fifty days, towards Capricorn. ...
— Fringilla: Some Tales In Verse • Richard Doddridge Blackmore

... therein have passed under my own observation, and I have distributed them in three columns; the first includes that portion of the north-east coast of Australia and its islands included between the Tropic of Capricorn and latitude 17 degrees 45 minutes south, or the parallel of the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria; the second comprises the remainder of the north-east coast as far to the northward as Cape York; and the third is devoted to the islands of Torres Strait, from Raine Islet to ...
— Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Vol. 2 (of 2) • John MacGillivray

... species of antelopes over all the earth—that more than fifty of these are African, and that thirty at least belong to South Africa—that is, the portion of the continent lying between the Cape of Good Hope and the Tropic of Capricorn. ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... neighboring island of which you speak is no other than the second in this group, named Mas a Fuera. As for the other, that San Ambrosio which you think so near, if it has not become a floating island since my last voyage, if it is still where I left it, under the Tropic of Capricorn, to reach it will not be so trifling a matter; besides, your little bottle must be a bottle of ink. There is here confusion of place and confusion of time; not only is Mas a Fuera not San Ambrosio but this latter island, far from being a desert, as your correspondent ...
— The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or The Real Robinson Crusoe • Joseph Xavier Saintine

... and doubtful strife with the forces of winter; and the cleansing of the stables of Augeas (5) has the same signification. It appears in fact that the stables of Augeas was another name for the sign of Capricorn through which the Sun passes at the Winter solstice (1)—the stable of course being an underground chamber—and the myth was that there, in this lowest tract and backwater of the Ecliptic all the malarious and evil influences of the sky were collected, ...
— Pagan & Christian Creeds - Their Origin and Meaning • Edward Carpenter

... large and hitherto almost unknown tract of land is situated so very advantageously in the richest climates of the world, the torrid and temperate zones; having in it especially all the advantages of the torrid zone, as being known to reach from the equator itself (within a degree) to the Tropic of Capricorn, and beyond it; that in coasting round it, which I designed by this voyage, if possible, I could not but hope to meet with some fruitful lands, continent or islands, or both, productive of any of the rich fruits, drugs, or spices (perhaps minerals also, etc.) that ...
— A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland • William Dampier

... New England earth in winter quarters and the surface vocal with Jeremiahs clamoring for snow, it had to come. The incantations of these raised a witch whirl in that mysterious source of all our storms, the region along the tropic of Capricorn, in the Gulf of Mexico. Up the coast it came, with the weather bureau flying storm flags in its honor from Palm Beach to the Penobscot, boring into the freezing temperature and clear air that the North ...
— Old Plymouth Trails • Winthrop Packard

... the arrows within the circle point out the direction of the north-east and the south-east "trades" between the tropics of cancer and capricorn, and also the counter currents to the north and south of these, while the arrows around the circle show how counter currents meet and rise, or descend, and ...
— The Ocean and its Wonders • R.M. Ballantyne

... standing over towards the coast of South America, then to steer parallel with it, till, feeling the influence of the trade winds, she was to keep eastward towards her destination. Hitherto good progress had been made, and a rapid passage was expected; but near the Tropic of Capricorn the wind fell, till a dead calm rested on the ocean; gradually every ripple was (as Mrs Clagget expressed it) smoothed out of the water. The sails hung idly down against the masts, chips of wood thrown overboard ...
— The Voyages of the Ranger and Crusader - And what befell their Passengers and Crews. • W.H.G. Kingston

... condor high above the Andes, A speck with difficulty found again Once the attention quits it. And I next Descried our woman under breathless noon, Bathing in a clear lane of gliding water Whose banks seem lonely as the path of light Crossing mid ocean south of Capricorn. Her son steals warily after a butterfly And is as hushed with hope to capture it As are the birds with heat. An insect hum Circles the spot as round a cymbal's rim, Long after it has clanged, tingles a throb Which in a dream forgets the parent sound, Oppressed by this protracted and ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various

... comparing the work of the small cusped arch at the bottom with Giotto's soft handling of the mouldings of his, in 5, you may for ever know common mason's work from fine Gothic. The zodiacal signs are quite hard and common in the method of bas-relief, but quaint enough in design: Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, on the broad heavenly belt; Taurus upside down, Gemini, and Cancer, on ...
— Mornings in Florence • John Ruskin

... sailed through the fiery zone without meeting any of the dreadful misfortunes which the sailors so feared. When he had sailed beyond the tropic of Capricorn, a severe storm arose. The wind blew his three vessels directly south for thirteen days, during which time he lost sight of land. When the sun shone again, Diaz headed his vessels eastward, but as no land appeared, he again changed the direction, ...
— Discoverers and Explorers • Edward R. Shaw

... hundred and sixty miles from Sydney to New Caledonia, a long, narrow island lying just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and completely surrounded by belts of coral reef crenellated here and there, and forming channels or passes where ships may enter. Navigation through these channels is, however, exceedingly hazardous in any but calm weather; and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 86, February, 1875 • Various

... Some say, the sun Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven Atlantick Sisters, and the Spartan Twins, Up to the Tropick Crab: thence down amain By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn; to bring in change Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers, Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun, To recompense his distance, in their sight ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton

... ..and yet in likelihood it may be so, for without all question, it being extended from the tropic of Capricorn to the circle Antarctic, and lying as it doth in the temperate zone, cannot choose but yield in time some flourishing kingdoms to succeeding ages, as America did unto ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... The Constellations of the Zodiac: summer and autumn; Capricorn, Archer, Scorpion, ...
— Astronomy for Amateurs • Camille Flammarion

... Whether inveigling Hymen has trepann'd The unwary youth, and tied the gordian knot Of jangling wedlock not to be dissolv'd; Worried all day by loud Xantippe's din, Who fails not to exalt him to the stars, And fix him there among the branched crew (Taurus, and Aries, and Capricorn, The greatest monsters of the Zodiac), Or for the loss of anxious worldly pelf, Or Delia's scornful slights, and cold disdain, Which check'd his amorous flame with coy repulse, The worst events that mortals can befall; By cares ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... able to determine in a thorough way the species, among the multitude of known polyps of all orders of radiates, worms, and especially of insects, where the simple genera of Papilio, Phalaena, Noctua, Tinea, Musca, Ichneumon, Curculio, Capricorn, Scarabaeus, Cetonia, etc., etc., already contain so many closely allied species which shade into each other, are almost confounded one with another? What a host of molluscan shells exist in every country and in all seas which elude our means of distinction, ...
— Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution - His Life and Work • Alpheus Spring Packard

... days, as we steamed northward toward the Tropic of Capricorn, and then passed it, we were within the Republic of Paraguay. On our right, to the east, there was a fairly well-settled country, where bananas and oranges were cultivated and other crops of hot countries raised. On the banks we passed an occasional ...
— Through the Brazilian Wilderness • Theodore Roosevelt

... that there could not have been an earlier calendar, as no "sage" could reasonably begin anywhere but at the beginning. At the same time, it must be explained that the astronomical order of the months, counting the first as being that when the sun enters Capricorn, is different from the civil order. Thus the Hia, Shang, and Chou first civil months were the third, second, and first astronomical months, representing the sun's entry into Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricorn, respectively. When the First August ...
— Ancient China Simplified • Edward Harper Parker

... land. Toward evening it fell calm, and the islands and high land were still in sight. The calm continued during the greatest part of the following day; but toward evening a light and favourable breeze sprung up, which enabled us to cross the tropic of Capricorn, and bend our course toward the Cape ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins

... in his report. He was only twenty-four; and he had not been in Coralio long enough for his enthusiasm to cool in the heat of the tropics—a paradox that may be allowed between Cancer and Capricorn. ...
— Cabbages and Kings • O. Henry

... plague, which astonished or afflicted the age of Justinian. I. In the fifth year of his reign, and in the month of September, a comet [74] was seen during twenty days in the western quarter of the heavens, and which shot its rays into the north. Eight years afterwards, while the sun was in Capricorn, another comet appeared to follow in the Sagittary; the size was gradually increasing; the head was in the east, the tail in the west, and it remained visible above forty days. The nations, who gazed with astonishment, expected wars and calamities ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon

... always blowing, the state of affairs after daylight was much like that which prevailed in England when King Alfred invented lanterns, while in the latter end of June the days were, of course, as short as they could be on the tropic of Capricorn, so that Patteson got up in the dark at ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... feeble Prince of the House of Austria were far more extensive than those of Lewis the Fourteenth. The American dependencies of the Castilian Crown still extended far to the North of Cancer and far to the South of Capricorn. But within this immense body there was an incurable decay, an utter want of tone, an utter prostration of strength. An ingenious and diligent population, eminently skilled in arts and manufactures, had been driven into exile by stupid and remorseless bigots. The glory of the Spanish pencil ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... this was, as the bookes me remember, The colde frosty season of December. Phoebus wax'd old, and hued like latoun,* *brass That in his hote declinatioun Shone as the burned gold, with streames* bright; *beams But now in Capricorn adown he light, Where as he shone full pale, I dare well sayn. The bitter frostes, with the sleet and rain, Destroyed have the green in every yard. *courtyard, garden Janus sits by the fire with double ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer



Words linked to "Capricorn" :   individual, astrology, mortal, sign, constellation, house, Capricorn the Goat, somebody, star sign, soul, sign of the zodiac, mansion, someone, star divination, Tropic of Capricorn, zodiac



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