Definition of "cycle"

cycle

/ˈsaɪ.kəl/

noun
plural cycles
1. An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
  Quotations
  VVages have been tvvice raiſed in my time, and they bear a full proportion, or even a greater than formerly, to the medium of proviſion during the laſt bad cycle of tvventy years.
  1795 November (date written), Edmund Burke, Thoughts and Details on Scarcity, […], London: […] [T. Gillet] for F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J[ohn] Hatchard, […], published 1800, page 6
2. A complete rotation of anything.
3. A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
  Quotations
  No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
  2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
  Ice is one of a slate of young, idealistic candidates for Move Forward who have joined mainstream politics in the hope that this election allows Thailand to break the cycle of military coups […]
  2023 May 8, Jonathan Head, “Thailand election: The young radicals shaking up politics”, in BBC News (World)‎
4. The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
5. (music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.
6. A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy.
7. A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
8. A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle, or a motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels.
9. (baseball) A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
10. (graph theory) A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
11. (topology, algebraic topology) A chain whose boundary is zero.
12. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
  Quotations
  With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb
  1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  There appears to be no absolute cycle in the universe; all is change and progression. No planet ever revolves twice precisely in the same orbit.
  1858, [anonymous], “Appendix”, in Edmund Burke, The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated; Being a Reprint of Edmund Burke’s Celebrated Essay, Entitled “A Vindication of Natural Society:” […], London: Holyoake and Company, […], page 54
13. An age; a long period of time.
  Quotations
  Thro' the shadow of the world we sweep into the younger day: / Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
  1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, page 110
14. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
  Quotations
  [H]ere we endeavour to preſent our Gard'ners with a compleat Cycle of what is requiſite to be done throughout every Moneth of the Year: […]
  1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] [Introduction to the Kalendar.].”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], page 56
15. (botany) One entire round in a circle or a spire.
  Quotations
  a cycle or set of leaves
  1857, Asa Gray, First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology
16. (weaponry) A discharge of a taser.
  Quotations
  Officers have made the mistake of applying many Taser cycles, expecting the suspect to relent.
  2014, R.T. Wyant, Thomas Burns, Risk Management of Less Lethal Options, CRC Press, page 211
17. (aviation) One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
18. (sports) A scheduled period of time of weeks or months wherein a performance-enhancing substance or, by extension, supplement is applied, to be followed by another one where it is not or the dosage is lower.
verb
third-person singular simple present cycles, present participle cycling, simple past and past participle cycled
1. To ride a bicycle or other cycle.
  Quotations
  Well, during our short staycation at Humberston Fitties, just south of Cleethorpes, we cycled through the very unspoilt Lincolnshire Wolds, which are by no means flat and boring as conventional wisdom about the county suggests.
  2021 July 28, Christian Wolmar, “Forgotten by the railways, but ripe for the exploring”, in RAIL, number 936, page 35
2. To go through a cycle or to put through a cycle.
3. (electronics) To turn power off and back on
4. (ice hockey) To maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone by handling and passing the puck in a loop from the boards near the goal up the side boards and passing to back to the boards near the goal

Definition of "cycle"

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verb

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