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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Meteor


ME'TEOR, noun [Gr. sublime, lofty.]

1. In a general sense, a body that flies or floats in the air, and in this sense it includes rain, hail, snow, etc. But in a restricted sense, in which it is commonly understood.

2. A fiery or luminous body or appearance flying or floating in the atmosphere, or in a more elevated region. We give this name to the brilliant globes or masses of matter which are occasionally seen moving rapidly through our atmosphere, and which throw off, with loud explosions, fragments that reach the earth, and are called falling stones. We call by the same name those fire balls which are usually denominated falling stars, supposed to be owning to gelatinous matter inflated by phosphureted hydrogen gas; also, the lights which appear over moist grounds and grave yards, called ignes fatui, which are ascribed to the same cause.

And meteor-like flame lawless through the sky.