(n.) The act of revolving, or turning round on an axis or a
center; the motion of a body round a fixed point or line; rotation; as,
the revolution of a wheel, of a top, of the earth on its axis, etc.
(n.) Return to a point before occupied, or to a point
relatively the same; a rolling back; return; as, revolution in an
ellipse or spiral.
(n.) The space measured by the regular return of a revolving
body; the period made by the regular recurrence of a measure of time,
or by a succession of similar events.
(n.) The motion of any body, as a planet or satellite, in a
curved line or orbit, until it returns to the same point again, or to a
point relatively the same; -- designated as the annual, anomalistic,
nodical, sidereal, or tropical revolution, according as the point of
return or completion has a fixed relation to the year, the anomaly, the
nodes, the stars, or the tropics; as, the revolution of the earth about
the sun; the revolution of the moon about the earth.
(n.) The motion of a point, line, or surface about a point
or line as its center or axis, in such a manner that a moving point
generates a curve, a moving line a surface (called a surface of
revolution), and a moving surface a solid (called a solid of
revolution); as, the revolution of a right-angled triangle about one of
its sides generates a cone; the revolution of a semicircle about the
diameter generates a sphere.
(n.) A total or radical change; as, a revolution in one's
circumstances or way of living.
(n.) A fundamental change in political organization, or in a
government or constitution; the overthrow or renunciation of one
government, and the substitution of another, by the governed.
