cometaryadj.
/ˈkɒmᵻt(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈkɑməˌtɛri/ 1. Of or relating to a comet or comets.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > constellation > comet or meteor > comet > [adjective]
cometary1619
cometical1665
cometic1668
sungrazing1882
1619 J. Bainbridge Astron. Descr. Late Comet 4 This Cometary line cutteth the Æquinoctiall line in the 8 degree almost of Scorpio, and 15 of Northerne latitude.
1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 79 The prodigious aspects in the heavens (Planetary, as well as Cometary).
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man ii. iv. 400 Revolutions either in a planetary or a cometary Orbit.
1853 J. F. W. Herschel Pop. Lect. Sci. (1873) iii. §42. 126 Few persons at all acquainted with cometary history.
1910 Westm. Gaz. 20 June 4/1 We may with some confidence look forward to a cometary spectacle in a week or so.
1988 Daily Tel. 24 Oct. 17/1 He has built up a detailed pattern of past cometary impacts.
2004 J. C. Brandt & R. D. Chapman Introd. Comets (ed. 2) i. 17 The planes of cometary orbits could be inclined at all angles to the ecliptic.
2. Of the nature of a comet; resembling (that of) a comet, comet-like. In early use frequently figurative: cf. cometic adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > constellation > comet or meteor > comet > [adjective] > resembling
beardy1581
comet-like1621
cometical1652
cometic1661
cometary1759
1759 Universal Chron. 19 May 161/3 Bright Immortality through all thy ways, Shall light thee with her cometary blase.
1808 S. T. Coleridge Let. 14 Dec. (1959) III. 147 This heroic Nation, loyal even to Death, the cometary Monster who hides beneath his gorgeous..Crown of Usurpation.
1861 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 21 33 The cluster known as 80 Messier changed, apparently, from a pale cometary looking object, to a well-defined star..and then returned to its usual and original appearance.
1908 H. James Princess Casamassima (N.Y. ed.) I. x. 152 Amanda Pynsent's forebodings had been answered to the letter; the flaring cometary creature had become a fixed star.
1929 Astrophysical Jrnl. 69 167 Meteors emanating from a real radiant are mostly of cometary character and sporadic meteors are mostly of interstellar origin.
1991 N. Eldredge Fossils v. 138 The ‘Oort cloud’ is a hypothetical swarm of cometary bodies in the very farthest reaches of the solar system.
2011 R. Gendler et al. Treasures Southern Sky 168 The inner part of the nebula shows a series of cometary knots arranged like bicycle spokes.
Compounds
cometary globule n. Astronomy a Bok globule with a tail of gas and dust, formed as a result of radiation pressure from a nearby star.
ΚΠ
1976 T. G. Hawarden & P. W. J. L. Brand in Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 175 19 p So far 12 of these objects, hereafter termed Cometary Globules (CGs) have been found.
1993 D. Malin View of Universe v. 111 Many of these faint cometary globules are found on the new, deep photographic sky surveys now being undertaken.
2006 C. L. Bennett Orion's Hounds v. 81 At first we thought it was just a conventional cometary globule until we saw how quickly it's changed shape.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1619