nutationaladj.

1877 Globe Encycl. IV. 459/1 In virtue of precessional motion, however, the earth's axis moves in a circle of much greater dimensions than those of the nutational ellipse.

1879 Proc. Royal Soc. 1878–9 28 197 It is shown that the precessional and nutational couples will give rise to certain tides of the second order.

1881 W. D. Hay 300 Years Hence viii. 152 The precessional and nutational movements of the earth.

1920 Science 5 Mar. 231/1 We must first determine..the precessional and nutational motions under these forces, and the consequent effective lift and drag, as these terms are used in aerodynamics.

1959 Van Lear & Lassen in A. E. Puckett & S. Ramo Guided Missile Engin. x. 275 If the gyro is started up with the inner gimbal initially inclined to the plane perpendicular to the outer gimbal, there is first a transitory nutational bobbing around.

1965 P. Bell & D. Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (new ed.) 361 In both kinds of movement the mechanical cause may be either a difference in growth rates on the two sides of an organ (nutational movements) or differential changes in the turgor of the cells (variational movements).

1985 R. M. Green Spherical Astron. ix. 227 The existence of two nutational terms, one in longitude and one in the obliquity, has been established. Each of the nutational terms has a period of six months.