cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (2 ed.)
... A bicycle, tricycle, or similar...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering (2 ed.)
...cycle 1. See thermodynamic cycle . 2. The sequence of values of a periodically oscillating quantity over a complete period. 3. A mechanical cycle, such as the four-stroke cycle of a piston...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Statistics (3 ed.)
... A repeating pattern in a time series ; examples are annual and daily...
cycle Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Music
...cycle . 1 A work consisting of several separate items (as opposed to movements), for example a song cycle or piano cycle. 2 A term applied to complete performances of a composer's works in one genre, for example a Beethoven symphony cycle. 3 A complete vibration; see acoustics, 4...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Chemical Engineering
...cycle A series or sequence of periodic changes in which a system moves away and returns to its expected or normal condition or position. See thermodynamic cycles . ...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Business and Management (6 ed.)
... The medium-term wavelike rise and fall of the sales of a product, resulting from changes in general economic and competitive activity. See also business cycle...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Physics (8 ed.)
...cycle A regularly repeated set of changes to a system that brings back all its parameters to their original values once in every set of changes. The duration of one cycle is called its period and the rate of repetition of cycle, called the frequency , is measured in hertz . See simple harmonic motion...
cycle Reference library
Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2 ed.)
... 1 any recurring period of time in which certain events or operations occur, complete themselves, or repeat themselves in a regular sequence. 2 any sequence of changes occurring in a system in which the system is eventually restored to its initial state. 3 (in biochemistry) any closed sequence of metabolic reactions in which an end product acts as a reactant in the initiation of the cycle, e.g. the tricarboxylic‐acid cycle . 4 (in ecology) any closed sequence of large‐scale processes that describes the nutritional interdependence of animals, plants,...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (5 ed.)
... One complete set of changes in the values of a recurring variable quantity that repeats regularly, such as an alternating current. ...
cycle Quick reference
A Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations (4 ed.)
... Any situation in which a voting procedure, choosing among multiple options, would choose A over B, B over C…, i over j , and j over A. The best‐known example is the cycle in simple majority rule, discovered by Condorcet in 1785 , but any majority rule short of unanimity may generate a cycle. Even if A beats B only if at least all the voters except one prefer A to B, there may still be a cycle. When a cycle exists, the will of the people is undetermined. Whatever is chosen, a majority of the people would rather have had something...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Computer Science (7 ed.)
... 1. (cycle time) An interval of time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed. It is usually the time required for one cycle of the memory system—the time between successive accesses—of a computer, and is sometimes considered to be a measure of computer power . 2. Any set of operations that is repeated regularly and in the same sequence. The operations may be subject to variations on each repetition. 3. (circuit) of a graph . A path that starts and ends at the same vertex. A cycle is said to be simple provided no edge appears more than...
cycle Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (4 ed.)
... A group of works, usually narrative poems, that either share a common theme or subject (e.g. the Trojan war, Charlemagne, the Knights of the Round Table), or are linked together as a sequence. In addition to epics , sagas , romances , and chansons de geste , which scholars have categorized into different cycles, the mystery plays of the Middle Ages that were performed as a sequence during the same festival at a particular place are referred to as the York Cycle, the Chester Cycle, etc. The term is also applied to sequences of sonnets by the same...
cycle Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6 ed.)
...cycle (permutations) A permutation f of a set S is a cycle if there are elements s 1 , s 2 ,…, s n such that f ( s 1 ) = s 2 , f ( s 2 ) = s 3 , ,,, f ( s n− 1 ) = s n , f ( s n ) = s 1 and f fixes all other elements. n is called the length of f and equals the order of f as an element of the symmetry group of S . The cycle f is denoted as ( s 1 s 2 … s n...
cycle Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Music (6 ed.)
... 1. Name for series of items written to be performed as a group and sometimes linked thematically either musically or by subject, esp. song‐cycle (Ger. Liedercyclus ). In opera the greatest cycle is Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen . 2. A complete vibration in music acoustics. 3. Any of systems of equal temperament in which tonal material is obtained by dividing octave into number of equal...
Cycle Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... A period or series of events or numbers that recur everlastingly in the same order. Cycle of the moon The metonic cycle , so named from its discoverer Meton of Athens (5th century bc ). It is a period of 19 years, at the end of which the phases of the moon repeat themselves on the same days as they did 19 years previously. See also callippic period . Cycle of the sun A period of 28 years, at the end of which the days of the month fall on the same days of the week as they did 28 years previously. Cyclic number A number whose square ends in the same...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Film Studies (2 ed.)
...for a while; but can eventually regenerate itself with a new cycle of films ( see genre ). A good deal of critical writing on cycles, both in general and in particular, looks at them in relation to commercial film industry imperatives, especially that of cashing in on successful formulae. Individual cycles are also studied in terms of their themes and styles, and their broader social and cultural contexts. For example, early studies of this sort focused on the 1930s Hollywood gangster cycle of crime films and linked them with social concerns of the...
cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units
... [Gk: ‘circle’] One set of ordered events or phenomena that recur without change in their essentials; hence, like one lap of a circle, the passing of one set leaves circumstances apparently unchanged except for the passage of time. For a literal lap of a circle, the terms ‘revolution’ and ‘turn’ are usual, e.g. in revolutions per minute for the rotation of an engine, and in ampere⋅turns for magnetomotive force from the windings of an electric motor. (The expressions two-cycle and four-cycle applied to engines, in contrast, refers to the logical sequence of...
Cycle Reference library
Anthony Cutler
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
...scenes. The early existence of cycles of the lives of Joshua and David has been hypothesized; the latter was certainly in existence by the time of the Second Cyprus Treasure (early 7th C.). The concept of cycles finds full development in church programs of decoration , icons, and manuscript illumination in and after the 9th C. Cycles of the Infancy, Ministry, and Passion of Christ, and of the lives of the Virgin Mary and of some saints ( see Hagiographical Illustration ), pervade the remaining centuries of Byz. art. Cycles in the literal sense of the...
cycle (in graph theory) Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6 ed.)
...cycle ( in graph theory ) A closed path with at least one edge. In a graph , a cycle is a sequence v 0 , e 1 , v 1 ,…, e k , v k ( k ≥1) of alternately vertices and edges (where e i is an edge joining v i −1 and v i ), with all the edges different and all the vertices different, except that v 0 = v k . See Hamiltonian graph , tree...
renewal cycle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Plant Sciences (4 ed.)
...cycle A biogeochemical cycle...
