# orbit

Pronunciation: US say "OR-bit" /ˈɔɹ.bɪt/; UK say "AW-bit" /ˈɔː.bɪt/

## Noun

1. The curved path that an object such as a planet, moon or spacecraft follows around a star, planet or other body, usually repeating in a regular cycle; also, any curving path around a point.
   - Simple: The curving route something takes around a center point or another object, like a moon around a planet.
   - _The space telescope was sent into a wide orbit around a Lagrange point, far beyond the Moon._
   - _The comet's long, stretched orbit carries it far past Neptune before it swings back toward the Sun._
3. The condition of circling another body or point along a curved path.
   - Simple: The state of going around and around something, like a satellite around the Earth.
   - _After two failed attempts, the company finally got its satellite into orbit._
   - _The old weather satellite will drop out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere next year._
4. The field over which someone or something has influence or control, or within which they are active or interested.
   - Simple: The area in which someone or something has influence, is active, or has an interest.
   - _Several of the senator's former aides remain firmly within her political orbit._
   - _The once-independent newspaper has slowly drifted into the orbit of a large media group._
5. A single complete trip around the body that something circles, ending where it began.
   - Simple: One full trip around the thing that something is circling.
   - _Each orbit of the Sun takes Earth just over 365 days._
   - _After sixteen orbits, the capsule fired its engines and headed home._
6. The bone-walled socket in a vertebrate's skull in which the eyeball sits.
   - Simple: The space in the bones of the head where the eye sits.
   - _The CT scan revealed a fracture of the floor of the left orbit._
   - _Owls have huge eyes, and unlike most birds, their orbits face forward rather than to the sides._
7. In atomic models such as Bohr's, a definite path along which an electron is pictured as moving around the nucleus.
   - Simple: In older, simpler models of an atom, the path an electron, one of its tiny parts, takes around the center.
   - _Textbook diagrams often show each electron's orbit as a neat circle around the nucleus._
   - _An electron that absorbs a photon can jump to a higher orbit, then fall back and give off light._
9. A state in which someone's excitement, activity or anger rises sharply. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A state of being very excited, very busy or very angry.
   - _The crowd went into orbit when the home team scored in the final seconds._
   - _The newsroom went into orbit as the election results started pouring in._
12. In birds and other animals, the region of the head that surrounds the eye.
   - Simple: The part of a bird's or other animal's face all around its eye.
   - _In this species the orbit is bare, wrinkled skin rather than feathers._
   - _Fine bristles grow along the orbits of many flies, just beside their large eyes._

## Verb

2. To move in a circle or curving path around another object or position, as a planet does around a star.
   - Simple: To move in a circle or curved path around another object or place, like Earth around the Sun.
   - _The space station orbits the planet roughly every ninety minutes._
   - _Astronomers have found several planets that orbit two stars at once._
8. To set a satellite or other object circling a planet, moon or other body, typically by launching it.
   - Simple: To send something, like a satellite, up into space so it goes around a planet.
   - _The Soviet Union was the first nation to orbit an artificial satellite, in 1957._
   - _The startup plans to orbit dozens of small imaging satellites over the next two years._
10. To move about in the general area around someone or something.
   - Simple: To move around near someone or something, staying close.
   - _Waiters orbit the head table all evening, refilling glasses before anyone asks._
   - _A swarm of reporters was orbiting the candidate as she left the courthouse._
11. To keep following someone or interacting with their posts on social media after ending a romantic relationship with them, while avoiding direct contact. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To keep following someone online or reacting to their posts after you stop dating them, while avoiding direct contact.
   - _He ended things in March, yet he still orbits her, viewing every story she posts within minutes._
   - _Her friends told her to block him rather than let him orbit her for another year._
13. To arrange something so that it revolves around a particular person or thing as its center.
   - Simple: To build something, like your life, around one person or thing.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In a dynamical system, a set of points tied to one another by the evolution function, the rule that moves the system forward in time.
- (noun) In geometry and group theory, all the elements of a set that a given element can be carried to by the transformations of a group acting on that set.
- (noun) In pinball, a lane running along the outer edge of the playfield, usually joined up so a ball entering at one end exits at the other.
- (noun) In poker, a full round of hands, as many as it takes for every player at the table to have posted the big blind once.

## Origin

The word goes back to Latin orbita (“course, track, impression, mark”), which passed into Middle English as orbite or orbita.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/orbit (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).