tropic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   of weather or climate

   hot and humid as in the tropics

2. 2
   adj

   relating to or situated in or characteristic of the tropics (the region on either side of the equator)

   tropical islands

3. 3
   noun

   Either of the two parallels of latitude 23°26′ north and south of the equator; the farthest points at which the sun can be directly overhead; the boundaries of the torrid zone or tropics.

   O conſider my caſe, moſt blisfull Queen, […] Diſpell thoſe Clouds which hover 'twixt my King and his higheſt Counſell, […] that my great Law-making Court be forced to turn no more to polemicall Committees, […] but that they may come again to the old Parliamentary Rode, To the path of their Predeceſſours, to conſult of means how to ſweep away thoſe Cobwebs that hang in the Courts of Juſtice, and to make the Laws run in their right Channell; to retrench exceſſive fees, and finde remedies for the future, that the poor Client be not ſo peeled by his Lawyer, and made to ſuffer by ſuch monſtrous delays, that one may go from one Tropick to the other, and croſſe the Equinoctiall twenty times, before his ſute be done; […]

4. 4
   adj

   Having the quality of indirectly inducing a biological or chemical change in a system or substrate.

   The binding of oxygen to hemoglobin is allosterically regulated by various tropic factors, such as BPG and acidity.

5. 5
   adj

   Pertaining to, involving, or of the nature of a trope or tropes.

   This process of tropic change, once identified in nostalgia poems, can be applied to a range of new and emerging genres in various periods. Identifying the tropes of nostalgia, in other words, allows us to appreciate the process[…]

6. 6
   noun

   either of two parallels of latitude about 23.5 degrees to the north and south of the equator representing the points farthest north and south at which the sun can shine directly overhead and constituting the boundaries of the Torrid Zone or tropics

7. 7
   noun

   The component of tone or rhetoric in a sentence.

8. 8
   adj

   Of, or relating to the tropics; tropical.

Etymology

From Late Latin tropicus (“of or pertaining to the solstice, as a noun, one of the tropics”), from Ancient Greek τροπικός (tropikós, “of or pertaining to a turn or change; or the solstice; or a trope or figure; tropic; tropical; etc.”), from τροπή (tropḗ, “turn; solstice; trope”).