colure Meaning, Definition & Usage

Co*lure" noun
Etymology
F. colure, L. coluri, pl., fr. Gr. dock-tailed, (sc. lines) the colures; fr. docked, stunted + tail. So named because a part is always beneath the horizon.
Wordforms
plural Colures
Definitions
  1. (Astron. & Geog.) One of two great circles intersecting at right angles in the poles of the equator. One of them passes through the equinoctial points, and hence is denominated the equinoctial colure; the other intersects the equator at the distance of 90° from the former, and is called the solstitial colure.
    Thrice the equinoctial line He circled; four times crossed the car of night From pole to pole, traversing each colure. Milton.

Webster 1913