tropicaladj.n.
/ˈtrɒpᵻkl/, U.S. /ˈtrɑpəkəl/ A. adj.† III. Uses related to mathematics.
I. Uses related to astronomy and geography.
1. Astronomy.
a. Designating each of the two points on the celestial sphere at which the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of the celestial equator and begins to move back towards it again ( tropical point: cf. tropic n. 1b), or each of the circles on the celestial sphere parallel to the equator which touch the ecliptic at one of these points ( tropical circle or tropical line: cf. tropic n. 1c); = tropic adj.1 2a. Now rare.In quot. 1778 in figurative context.
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c1400 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe (Cambr. Dd.3.53) (1872) i. §17. 9 The plate vnder thi Riet is descriued with 3 tropikal [c1400 Brussels, c1425 Rawl. principal] cerclis, of wiche the leste is cleped the cercle of cancer.
1592 R. Tanner Brief Treat. Ready Use Sphere 8 Next followeth the two tropicall Cyrcles.
1659 J. Moxon Tutor to Astron. & Geogr. 99 When the Sun is neer the Equinoctial points the Daies lengthen or shorten very fast: but when he is neer the Tropical points, very slowly.
1727 G. Ollyffe Disc. Divine Power 26 How great must be the Authority that rules the Sun and Moon..that the Sun should not be permitted to run altogether to or beyond one of the Tropical Lines, either of North or South, without returning to give an equal Visit to the other?
1778 G. L. Way Learning at Loss II. 85 So far it has been in a State of Improvement. It is then at its Point Tropical, its Solstice, its Zenith of Perfection.
1832 E. C. Brown Passion & Reason III. 390 The sun having gained his utmost tropical point, his solstitial fervor had mellowed.
1919 Open Court 33 362 Each of the twelve zodiac houses is subdivided into five sections by the two polar and two tropical circles.
b. Of or relating to a tropic (tropic n. 1b, 1c); spec. expressed or defined in terms of a solstice or (equivalently, and more commonly) equinox, rather than with reference to the background stars (cf. sidereal adj. 2a).tropical month, tropical year: see Compounds.
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the world > the universe > sun > solar movement > [adjective] > solstice
solstitial1559
tropical?1574
solstitian1614
converted1618
?1574 W. Bourne Regiment for Sea iii. sig. C.iijv Yet some do affirme to be adde .6. houres, but there lacketh .4. minuts .47. seconds in the tropicall yeare.
1662 T. Stanley Hist. Chaldaick Philos. 39 Tropical [signs] are those to which when the Sun cometh he turneth back.
1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. xlii. 507 The period of its [sc. the earth's] revolution, with respect to the equinoctial points,..is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; and this is called its tropical revolution.
1832 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 122 120 The mean tropical longitudes of Venus and the Earth.
1860 R. S. Poole in W. Smith Dict. Bible I. 506/1 The Egyptians are known to have used two great cycles, the Sothic Cycle and the Tropical Cycle.
1886 D. J. Medhora Zoroastrian & Some Other Anc. Syst. 44 Tropical are those to which when the sun comes, he comes back and makes a conversion. Such are the signs, Aries, and its opposite Libra, and Capricorn and Cancer.
1975 D. Pingree in G. F. Hourani Ess. Islamic Philos. 12 The text must refer to a simultaneous rising of Sirius and the point Cancer 19° on either a sidereal or tropical zodiac.
1998 J. Evans Hist. & Pract. Anc. Astron. iv. 295 Jupiter's synodic period is much shorter than Jupiter's tropical period, for Jupiter makes only a little progress around the ecliptic..between retrogradations.
2005 Mountain Astrologer Feb. (Mercury Direct section) 11/2 The Astracadabra software offers..both the tropical zodiac and the sidereal zodiac.
2.
a. Geography. Designating a parallel of latitude corresponding to a celestial tropic; of the nature of a tropic (tropic n. 2a). Cf. tropic adj.1 2a.
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a1527 R. Thorne in R. Hakluyt Divers Voy. (1582) sig. B4 The quantitie of the earth vnder the equinoctiall to both the tropicall lines.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia i. i. 4 Being blessed with a prosperous Gale, in fifteen Days from England we were to the Southward of the Tropical Circle of Cancer.
1789 W. Black Arithm. & Med. Anal. Dis. 27 Within the tropical circles there is not the same diversity of the seasons as in European regions.
1807 E. Blomfield Gen. View World I. 35 The torrid, or burning zone, is..bounded by the tropical circles.
1911 F. A. Merrill Field & Lab. Note Bk. Physical Geogr. 21 What determines the distance of the tropical circles from the equator?
2001 Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. 82 202/1 He [sc. Eratosthenes of Cyrene] also developed mathematical geography, establishing the polar and tropical circles of Cancer and Capricorn.
b. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the tropics (see tropic n. 2b); occurring in or inhabiting the tropics. Cf. tropic adj.1 2b.Now the main sense.
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the world > the earth > region of the earth > zone or belt > [adjective] > tropical
tropic1624
tropical1671
intertropical1794
intratropical1811
subequatorial1841
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > hot weather > [adjective]
warmc888
hotOE
tropic1764
tropical1788
subtropical1829
shirtsleeve1877
Thermidorian1891
1671 R. Bohun Disc. Wind 68 It [sc. the Trade Wind] is likewise call'd the Tropicall, Levantine, and Universall Brise: because it..makes no farre excursions beyond the Tropiques.
1698 tr. F. Froger Relation Voy. Coasts Afr. 3 At three o'clock in the morning we passed the tropick of Cancer;..and in the afternoon performed the ceremonies of Tropical baptism or duckings, which are commonly us'd by mariners in those places.
1699 W. Dampier Voy. & Descr. i. ii. 33 Many reasons..beside the accidental ones from the make of the particular Countries, Tropical Winds, or the like.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall (1846) V. l. 2 The face of the desert..is scorched by the direct and intense rays of a tropical sun.
1809 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. VII. ii. 355 Tropical Crow. Corvus Tropicus.
1851 W. B. Carpenter Man. Physiol. (ed. 2) 67 The highest temperature which the soil usually possesses in tropical climates, is about 126°.
1863 J. D. Dana Man. Geol. 615 Coral formations are most abundant in the tropical Pacific.
1915 C. R. Enock Tropics xl. 442 Events in some tropical lands have laid bare the unwisdom of monocultural methods.
1971 A. M. Keen Sea Shells Trop. W. Amer. 467 There are only a few species of carrier shells, all tropical in distribution.
1992 J. Hamilton-Paterson Seven-tenths iii. i. 85 Coral reefs are to be found in balmy, tropical and subtropical latitudes.
2009 D. Nicholls One Day (2010) ii. 32 A vivid image of himself smoking beneath a ceiling fan in tropical countries, a battered Nikon and a bottle of whisky by his bedside.
c.
(a) Of clothing, fabric, etc.: suitable for use in hot climates; lightweight and porous. Cf. tropical-weight adj. at Compounds.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [adjective] > for specific purpose > other
morningc1620
tropical1774
underground1827
lingeriea1865
summer weight1866
winter weight1871
knockabout1880
dog robber1898
Ascot1907
day length1932
live-in1944
1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica III. 694 This vegetable wool [sc. cotton]..is certainly the best appropriated, and wholesomest material, for a Tropical dress.
1792 W. Bligh Voy. to South Sea ii. 26 I gave orders for their light tropical clothing to be put by, and made them dress in a manner more suited to a cold climate.
1858 J. Jeffreys Brit. Army in India 9 On this very question of Tropical dress,..he was enabled to insulate himself under the rays of the former [sc. a tropical sun].
1860 C. Dickens et al. Message from Sea i, in All Year Round Extra Christmas No., 13 Dec. 2/1 Your tropical hat, strongly paid outside and paper-lined inside.
1920 W. J. Locke House of Baltazar x. 121 The tropical drill material which had clothed the troops in Hong Kong.
1938 E. Waugh Scoop i. iii. 57 William had acquired..six suits of tropical linen.
1966 P. O'Donnell Sabre-tooth i. 8 He wore the tropical uniform of the United States Army.
1981 G. MacBeth Kind of Treason xviii. 178 Mountbatten..was..in immaculate tropical kit.
2004 S. Jeffrey Shadows on Light (e-book, accessed 3 Nov. 2012) 196 He wore his customary white tropical dress suit so as to distract attention from his wounded appendages.
(b) Designating a colourful pattern or design based on images associated with the tropics, such as exotic flowers, trees, birds, etc. Now also of an item of clothing: patterned with such a design.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > pattern or design > [adjective] > types of pattern or design generally
stained1397
trailed1490
printed1535
rebesk?a1549
arabesque1731
arabesqued1817
tropical1852
hand-printed1856
repeating1863
1852 Godey's Lady's Bk. Feb. 170/1 Dinner-dress of rich bouquet brocade. The flowers are very large, of tropical patterns, as cactus, etc.
1881 M. P. Goff Household (ed. 2) i. 102 Others use wall paper—that with storks, palm trees and tropical designs seeming to be the favorite.
1937 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 14 Mar. (Mag. & Fiction section) It's the season of year when a young lady's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of tropical prints and tulle and lace and organdy.
1986 Toronto Star (Nexis) 5 June c2 For spring, both..feature socks with very strong patterns—polka dots and tropical motifs: palms, parrots, fruits and flowers.
2011 T. Schaffert Coffins of Little Hope xxxvii. 153 Aside from a few tropical shirts in the summertime or some pastels at Easter, the shop was a somber affair, rack after rack of..gray and navy.
d. Of a disease or disorder: occurring only or mainly in the tropics.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > environmental disorders > [adjective] > climate
tropical1787
atmospherical1829
1787 B. Moseley (title) A treatise on tropical diseases.
1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xi. 118 It [sc. salivation] has been also very extensively recommended by army and navy surgeons, in the treatment of tropical fevers.
1893 A. Davidson Hygiene & Dis. Warm Climates xvii. 613 Tropical Liver.
1934 Discovery July 207/1 The practical certainty of infection from tropical anaemia or ‘hookworm’.
1969 G. M. Edington & H. M. Gilles Pathol. in Tropics x. 435 Tropical splenomegaly syndrome may in some patients end up in lymphosarcoma.
2004 J. Playfair Living with Germs (2007) ii. 37 Two close relatives of T. pallidum are the causes of the tropical skin diseases yaws and pinta.
e. figurative. Resembling the climate or growth of the tropics; very hot, ardent, or luxuriant.
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the mind > emotion > passion > ardour or fervour > [adjective]
hotOE
anguishous?c1225
fire-burningc1275
burninga1340
ardentc1374
warm1390
fervent14..
fieryc1430
fired1561
feverous1576
glowinga1577
fervorous1602
ferventeda1627
tropica1631
torrid1646
fervid1656
candenta1687
ardurousa1770
tropical1795
aestuous1844
thermal1866
thermonous1888
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > [adjective] > having or communicating much heat > warm > very warm
tropical1880
1795 tr. G. P. L. L. Wächter Sorcerer 82 Thou hast sacrificed it in the heat of youth, and in the summer solstice of a tropical temperament.
1834 Tait's Edinb. Mag. New Ser. 1 383/1 Home he came, after an absence of fifty years, in a hissing hot fit of tropical rage.
1850 ‘S. Yendys’ Roman vi. 76 My fierce and tropical fancy, Hot with swift pulses.
1880 ‘Ouida’ Moths I. 174 We Russians have a passion for tropical houses.
1906 A. Machen House of Souls 175 People who observed the thermometer spoke of an abnormal register, of a temperature that was almost tropical.
1933 B. Gadelius Human Mentality xii. 297 We meet natures that are frigid, others that are temperate, and others again who may with reason be called tropical.
2000 Irish Times (Nexis) 26 Aug. 63 Other letters contained photos of women offering themselves for a night of tropical passion.
f. Of a dish, drink, etc.: prepared in a style characteristic of the tropics; (also) made or flavoured with ingredients typically found in or associated with the tropics, esp. tropical fruit; characterized by tropical fruit flavours.
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1850 R. Baird Impressions & Experiences W. Indies & N. Amer. viii. 165 Some tropical dishes and fruits—turtle-soup and pine-apples in particular—are very delicious.
1890 L. Hearn Two Years in French W. Indies i. xi. 38 Everywhere and always..comes to you the scent of the city..;—a compound odor suggesting the intermingling of sugar and garlic in those strange tropical dishes which creoles love.
1911 M. Cameron Pretender Person 34 We..visited various cafés, where we were introduced to all sorts of delectable, fruity, tropical drinks and delicious ices.
1938 Washington Post 25 Mar. 16/1 Irresistible to the judges were some of the luscious tropical salads and desserts submitted.
1986 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 21 May (Food section) d9/1 (headline) Cream of coconut puts tropical taste in cool beverages.
2010 C. R. Pond Taste of Broadway 133/1 Salmon fillets are pan-seared and topped with an easy-to-make tropical sauce of passion fruit juice and heavy cream.
g. Zoology. Of spines of a radiolarian: disposed in a circle corresponding in position to the terrestrial tropic of Cancer or Capricorn (see quot. 1887). Now rare.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > protozoa > class Sarcodina > order Radiolaria > [adjective] > of position of spines in skeleton
tropical1887
1887 E. Haeckel in Rep. Sci. Results Voy. H.M.S. Challenger: Zool. XVIII. i. 718 In each hemisphere [of the radiolarian skeleton] there are disposed quite symmetrically eight radial spines, the distal ends of which fall in two parallel circles, a larger tropical circle (nearer to the equator) and a smaller polar circle (nearer to the pole of the spineless axis). Therefore we call the four spines of the former the ‘tropical spines’.
1911 A. W. Weysse Synoptic Text-bk. Zoöl. (new ed.) iii. 31 (caption) Northern tropical spines.
1982 J. Cachon & M. Cachon in S. P. Parker Synopsis & Classif. Living Organisms I. 554/1 Four diametral or eight radial spines in the two tropical planes (the meridian planes of the tropical spines being at an angle of 45° with the meridian planes of the equatorial spines).
II. Uses related to trope n. I.
3. Relating to, involving, or of the nature of a trope or tropes (trope n. 1); metaphorical, figurative.The predominant sense until the late 17th cent.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > figure of speech > figures of meaning > [adjective] > characterized by metaphor > metaphorical or figurative
figurative14..
figural?a1500
translated1511
figurate1548
tropological1555
metaphorical1563
tropical1565
tropic1569
translate1582
allusory1587
translative1589
allusive1593
metaphoric1597
transumptive1597
transferent1614
translatitious1637
analogic1638
tralatitious1645
parabolic1696
tropologic1796
transitive1810
transferred1863
1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare v. xi. 346 Not onely Tropical, Symbolical, Metaphorical, Allegorical.
1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 97 To sende ouer Owles to Athens. In Tropicall sense, ment of such as bestow largely vpon them that haue no neede.
1620 T. Granger Syntagma Logicum 19 Whether the words bee plaine, and proper, or tropicall, and figuratiue.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iii. iii. 111 A strict and literall acception of a loose and tropicall expression. View more context for this quotation
1725 I. Watts Logick i. iv. §7 They are used in a figurative or tropical Sense, when they are made to signify some things, which only bear either a Reference or a Resemblance to the primary Ideas of them.
1783 H. Blair Lect. Rhetoric I. xiv. 281 A vast variety of tropical or figurative words.
1823 G. S. Faber Treat. Christian Dispensations II. ii. v. 190 The great sheet let down from heaven was as perfect a tropical hieroglyphic as any invented by the ingenuity of Egypt.
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. ii. §49. 164 These [writings] had been partially differentiated into the kuriological or imitative, and the tropical or symbolic.
1914 Harvard Theol. Rev. 7 575 If we speak of Him as the ‘seed’ out of which the ‘plant’ of Christianity has grown, we are merely using tropical language which very easily may be deceptive.
1984 S. A. Bonebakker in Encycl. Islam (ed. 2) V. 900 There is not only a trope of the intellect in the relation between subject and predicate, but also a tropical use of ‘made the earth come to life’.
2009 J. Maynard Lit. Intention, Lit. Interpr. 323 The entire text seemed to us to be consumed in such tropical..ambiguity.
4. Mathematics. In A. Cayley's terminology: designating a branch point of a multivalued function. Obsolete. rare.
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the world > relative properties > number > algebra > [adjective] > relating to expressions > relating to functions
generating1671
exponential1704
discontinuous1803
functional1806
odd1812
periodic1820
syzygetic1850
convex1858
graphometric1865
polycyclic1869
subrational1875
synectic1876
variational1879
polyhedral1881
holomorphic1886
tropical1887
Gudermannian1888
monogeneous1888
monotonous1890
oscillating1893
monotonic1901
monotone1903
orthogonalized1909
schlicht1925
concave1942
deconvolved1974
unate1978
1887 A. Cayley in Proc. London Math. Soc. 18 315 Conversely, if there is no tropical point, then u will be a monotropic function of z; but we must consider and exclude not only tropical points at a finite distance, but also the point at infinity.
B. n.
In plural. Clothing (esp. a man's two-piece suit) suitable for a hot humid climate.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [noun] > for specific purpose > other
dress1539
khilat1684
sweaters1828
tropicals1880
trade dress1887
sportswear1903
rat-catcher1910
rainwear1913
beach-wear1928
transitioner1941
camouflage1945
warm-up1949
buoyancy garment1962
athleisure1976
1880 Order of Business at James Platt & Company's LSE Selected Pamphlets 29 Trouserings. From the lowest price to the highest. Scotch and West to be kept separate, and Tropicals put in with the 4s. 9d. Summers.
1888 Ladies Monthly Mag. Jan. 16/2 (advt.) Suitings.—We always keep the largest stock of Scotch tropicals.
1934 G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good iii. 85 Aubrey, in white tropicals, comes strolling along the beach.
1980 J. Hone Flowers of Forest iii. i. 221 Dressed in immaculate linen tropicals and some kind of old boy's tie.
2003 M. Atwood Oryx & Crake (2004) xiii. 406 He wore a set of standard-issue Rejoov khaki tropicals.
Compounds
tropical cyclone n. (a) a tropical storm with extremely strong winds (typically above 118 km per hour) (cf. cyclone n. a, b); also called hurricane or typhoon; (b) Meteorology a cyclone (cyclone n. c) originating in tropical latitudes (having winds of any intensity).
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the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > bad weather > [noun] > stormy weather > a storm > violent storm > specific types
hurricane1555
typhoon1588
oliphant1616
elephant1702
elephanta1725
typhon1783
tropical storm1809
tropical cyclone1852
hustler1882
hurricano-
1852 Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 1851 20 220 What a singular and wonderful complication of meteorological phenomena a tropical Cyclone in all its terrific power presents.
1887 Proc. Royal Soc. 42 141 Tropical and extra-tropical cyclones are identical in general character, but differ in certain details.
1931 Port Arthur (Texas) News 2 Aug. 12/2 The outstanding features of the tropical cyclone are the violent winds, abnormally high tides, the calm center of vortex, [etc.].
2009 T.S. Garrison Essent. Oceanogr. vii. 160/1 Tropical cyclones containing winds less than hurricane force are called tropical storms and depressions.
tropical depression n. Meteorology a circular or oval system of atmospheric low pressure formed over a tropical ocean and accompanied by winds of moderate speed (typically up to 61 km per hour).
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1849 W. R. Birt in J. F. W. Herschel Man. Sci. Enq. (Lords Commissioners Admiralty) x. 341 Ships by the way of the Cape of Good Hope should commence the three-hourly series [of barometric observations].., in order that the phenomena of the tropical depression..may be well observed.
1908 Official Year Bk. Commonw. Austral. 1901–1907 119 The third agent associated with the production of rain is the tropical depression more popularly known as the ‘monsoonal depression’.
1990 Area 22 107 As it [sc. Hurricane Gilbert] moved inland..it was finally downgraded to a tropical depression.
2006 N.Y. Post (Nexis) 14 July 20 Many tropical depressions will form and a few will turn into hurricanes.
tropical forest n. forest found within or close to the tropics; (as a count noun) an area of this; esp. = tropical rainforest n.
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1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. iii. iii. 242 To this class [sc. the magpie and its affinities] may be added a numerous list from all the tropical forests of the east and west.
1833 G. A. Mantell Geol. South-east Eng. 338 The floor of the quarry was literally strewed with fossil wood, and before me were the remnants of a petrified tropical forest.
1986 New Scientist 23 Oct. 26/2 Dry tropical forest is the kind of vegetation that grew on the land which today supports tropical corn fields, rice fields, cotton fields, [etc.].
2009 Guardian 16 Feb. 8 Tropical forests may dry out and become vulnerable to devastating wildfires as global warming accelerates.
tropical fruit n. any edible fruit native to or grown in tropical regions, such as guava, mango, papaya, pineapple, etc.; frequently attributive; cf. exotic fruit n. at exotic adj. and n. Additions.
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the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > fruit or a fruit > [noun] > fruit by type of growth
orchard fruit1652
tree-fruit1704
tropical fruit1746
bush-fruit1884
cane-fruit1889
1746 T. Salmon Mod. Gazetteer at Mindanao They have also coco-nuts, plantains, and other tropical fruits, on which they live.
1859 Harper's Mag. Jan. 165/2 Monkeys, parrots, and parakeets, cakes.., and a variety of tropical fruits, were exposed for sale on every side.
1872 Boston Daily Globe 18 July 4/6 It is expected the new line [sc. of steamships] will revolutionize the tropical fruit trade by making quick passages.
1942 Billboard 28 Mar. 82/2 The firm features the following tropical fruit flavors: Pina colada, papaya, grape and coconut champagne.
1983 N.Y. Times 15 May xxi. 21/3 A local manufacturer makes smooth..vanilla rum and tropical fruit ice creams for the restaurant.
2005 Olive July 123/3 Pudding is usually no more complicated than fresh tropical fruit such as bananas, papaya and mango.
tropical island n. an island situated within or close to the tropics.
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the world > the earth > land > land mass > island > [noun] > other
desert island1607
holt1611
sister isle1612
atoll1625
floating island1638
sister island1659
tropical island1769
artificial island1775
home island1806
wooden island1808
fire-isle1817
coral-island1831
thrum cap1832
branch-island1834
island-continent1872
off-island1880
hover1892
phosphate island1909
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 17 The island of Barbadoes..is esteemed the most temperate and salubrious of all the tropical islands.
1895 Pall Mall Gaz. 26 July 2/3 The much advertised land-crabs are precisely the same ‘violet crab’..found on similar tropical islands.
1967 A. Kavan Ice i. 9 I thought of an almost extinct race of large singing lemurs.., living in the forest trees of a remote tropical island.
2011 Osiris 26 26 This trip directly exposed Humboldt to..the idea that exhalations from soil, plants, and water might influence rainfall on Tahiti, St. Helena, and other tropical islands.
tropical medicine n. the branch of medicine concerned with tropical diseases and other aspects of health care in the tropics.
ΚΠ
1823 London Med. & Physical Jrnl. 49 289 The reader will readily agree with me, that tropical medicine has called forth its due share of talent.
1910 A. Castellani & A. J. Chalmers Man. Trop. Med. i. 3 Modern tropical medicine has now reached India and Ceylon from the West.
2006 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 14 Sept. 28 A career in tropical medicine can be as exciting as you make it, according to veterans in the field.
tropical month n. [compare ancient Greek οἱ τροπικοὶ μῆνες, plural] †(a) a month in which the moon is close to a solstitial point, or closer to a solstitial point than to an equinoctial point (obsolete); (b) the interval between two successive passages of the moon through the same solstitial or equinoctial point.
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1686 J. Goad Astro-meteorologica iii. ii. 391 December is a Tropical Month, as March is an Equinoctial.
1752 J. Jackson Chronol. Antiq. II. 45 At the Summer Tropic, when the Attic Year commenced, the Athenians celebrated a public Festival, and offered sumptuous Sacrifices to the Sun; from which the tropical Month was called Hecatombæon.
1869 Philos. Trans. 1868 (Royal Soc.) 158 687 Twice in the course of a tropical month, when the moon is on the equator, her diurnal effect vanishes.
1988 H. A. Klein Sci. Measurem. xv. 153 A tropical month, with 29.530 40 mean solar days, is just 0.000 19 such days, or about 16.4 second, shorter than a synodic month.
tropical rain n. very heavy (and often frequent) rain characteristic of tropical climates; (also) rain likened to this (occurring outside the tropics).
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the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > rain > [noun] > heavy rain
tropical rain1764
stair-rod1963
1764 Ann. Reg. 1763 Hist. Europe 10/2 Deluged as they were with the heavy tropical rains, they compleated one large battery for heavy cannon.
1849 Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 380 The Nile leaves the zone of tropical rain at the influx of the Atbara.
1922 Pop. Mech. Sept. 356/2 The heavy tropical rains often washed down the banks, leaving little pools of water, in which mosquitoes bred freely.
1992 Guardian 6 June 24 We got back to the lake [in Snowdonia] and drove homewards. In less than 10 minutes tropical rain was thundering on the car roof.
2004 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 9 Dec. 3 A highly unusual weather system..is pulling tropical rain into South Australia from the east coast.
tropical rainforest n. [after German tropischer Regenwald (1898 in the passage translated in quot. 1903)] rainforest occurring within or close to the tropics; (as a count noun) an area of this.
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the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by habit > tree or woody plant > wood or assemblage of trees or shrubs > [noun] > characteristic of particular habitat or period
maquis1829
motte1844
amber forest1846
caatinga1846
native bush1853
chena1877
monsoon forest1903
rainforest1903
tropical rainforest1903
padang1909
cloud forest1922
macchia1924
the world > the earth > land > landscape > fertile land or place > land with vegetation > [noun] > wooded land > types of
ripplelOE
wildwooda1122
rough1332
firth?a1400
tod stripec1446
osiard1509
bush1523
bush-ground1523
fritha1552
island1638
oak landc1658
pinelandc1658
piney wood1666
broom-land1707
pine barrenc1721
pine savannah1735
savannah1735
thick woods1754
scrub-land1779
olive wood1783
primeval forest1789
open wood1790
strong woods1792
scrub1805
oak flata1816
sertão1816
sprout-land1824
flatwoods1841
bush-land1842
tall timber1845
amber forest1846
caatinga1846
mahogany scrub1846
bush-flat1847
myall country1847
national forest1848
selva1849
monte1851
virgin forest1851
bush-country1855
savannah forest1874
bush-range1879
bushveld1879
protection forest1889
mulga1896
wood-bush1896
shinnery1901
fringing forest1903
monsoon forest1903
rainforest1903
savannah woodland1903
thorn forest1903
tropical rainforest1903
gallery forest1920
cloud forest1922
rain jungle1945
mato1968
1903 W. R. Fisher tr. A. F. W. Schimper Plant-geogr. iv. 283 (heading) Distribution of the tropical rain-forest [Ger. Verbreitung des tropischen Regenwaldes].
1950 Amer. Scientist 38 209 Tropical rainforest impresses even a casual observer by the enormity of the mass of protoplasm arising from its soil.
1977 Kuwait Times 1 Nov. 4/1 The green belt of tropical rain forest which used to girdle the world has been broken and is being eaten up at the rate of 20 hectares a minute.
1996 C. A. Edwards & P. J. Bohlen Biol. & Ecol. Earthworms vi. 118 Relatively little research has been done on earthworm communities in tropical rainforests.
2011 J. P. Rafferty Forests & Grasslands i. 25 Particularly in the complex tropical rainforest community, the removal of one species threatens the survival of others with which it interacts.
tropical storm n. a storm occurring in the tropics; (Meteorology) an intensified tropical depression with very strong winds (typically between 62 and 117 km per hour).
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the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > bad weather > [noun] > stormy weather > a storm > violent storm > specific types
hurricane1555
typhoon1588
oliphant1616
elephant1702
elephanta1725
typhon1783
tropical storm1809
tropical cyclone1852
hustler1882
hurricano-
1809 Brit. Critic 1 Sept. 125 Trees that for a century had braved the fury of the tropical storm.
1915 San Antonio (Texas) Light 18 Aug. 1/4 The centre of the tropical storm that passed over Galveston Monday was this Morning centred near Fort Worth.
1961 New Scientist 21 Sept. vii. 85 Although tropical storms may develop hurricane intensity over the eastern Caribbean, the actual formation of a tropical storm over the central or eastern Caribbean is rare.
2012 Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune (Nexis) 3 Oct. A1 Nadine seemed to be forgotten as just another tropical storm that fizzled out at sea.
tropical wave n. Meteorology an area of disturbed low pressure air in the tropics, typically moving westwards and developing into a depression; esp. a large low-pressure trough aligned in a north–south direction and moving from the African coast towards and across the Caribbean, bringing thunderstorms and potentially generating tropical cyclones.
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1948 Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 29 197 Synoptic disturbances, such as polar troughs, that tend to decelerate waves produce intensification, provided that they are not so deep as to destroy entirely the upper easterly circulation associated with the tropical wave.
1968 Geogr. Jrnl. 134 591 World synoptic entities down to the scale of tropical cyclones and tropical wave disturbances all receive some systematic treatment.
1989 A. Wilentz Rainy Season (1990) iii. 69 Something called a tropical wave..a vengeful storm, a cyclone, had been predicted for today.
2018 L. Wright God save Texas iii. 74 In early August 2017, an atmospheric formation known as a tropical wave stirred into life off the western coast of Africa and began its journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
tropical-weight adj. = sense A. 2c(a).
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > [noun] > weight of
tropical-weight1901
1901 Yale Lit. Mag. June (verso rear cover) (advt.) We beg to draw attention to our tropical weight suitings for extreme warm weather.
1925 in C. Allen Tales from Dark Continent (1979) iii. 43 Tropical weight dress coat.
1971 ‘J. Mayo’ Asking for It v. 18 I unpacked a cream shirt, my tropical-weight brown suit and put them on.
2011 L. Martone Detroit & Ann Arbour 64/1 Pratt himself succumbed to pneumonia soon afterwards, perhaps because of his stubborn habit of wearing tropical-weight clothing during the long and cold Midwestern winters.
tropical year n. [after post-classical Latin annus tropicus (1560 or earlier; also tropicus annus (1556 or earlier))] the interval between two successive passages of the sun through the same solstitial or equinoctial point; a year as reckoned from one (winter or summer) solstice or one (vernal or autumnal) equinox to the next.
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?1574Tropical year [see sense A. 1b].
1612 A. Hopton Concordancy of Yeares xx. 63 The Tropicall yeare taketh his beginning from the Vernall Equinox, containing 365 dayes, 5 houres, 49 minuts, 15 seconds, and 46 thirds, but the vnequall or aparent Tropical yeare containes sometime more..and other times lesse..: And this vnequality is made by the vnequall precession of the Equinoctiall points.
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. iii. §12. 408 The Tropical Year is that space of time wherein the same Seasons of the Year return again.
1844 H. Browne Ordo Sæclorum 525 Mr. Greswell sets out with a confused fancy that these day-names are somehow so necessarily connected with the tropical year, that the Julian year has no right to them.
1921 D. N. Mallik Elem. Astron. xiv. 218 In order that 400 years of the (corrected) calendar should be equal (nearly) to 400 tropical years, it is necessary to drop 3 leap years.
2005 L. Holford-Strevens Hist. Time ii. 21 Owing to precession, the tropical year is somewhat shorter than the sidereal year.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.c1400