diurnal motion

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. the apparent daily motion, caused by the earth's rotation, of celestial bodies across the sky.

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diurnal motion British  

noun

1. motion that occurs during the day or daily, such as the diurnal rotation of the celestial sphere

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Example Sentences

This idea was that by studying the form and motions of the earth and directing a ship’s course so that it shall partake of the earth’s diurnal motion a voyage may be materially shortened.”

From The True Benjamin Franklin by Fisher, Sydney George

And would there then be a diurnal motion of that Primum Mobile which is so great and beyond them all immense and profound?

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by Gilbert, William

In using the terms “swift and round” Chaucer must have been thinking of the primum mobile which, as we have seen, was thought to have a swift diurnal motion from east to west.

From Astronomical Lore in Chaucer by Grimm, Florence M.

The lunar tide is a perturbation in the diurnal motion of the sea, and its amount is therefore a legitimate mode of calculating the moon's mass.

From Pioneers of Science by Lodge, Oliver, Sir

For five thousand years genius has turned opposite to the diurnal motion, and traveled from east to west.

From Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia being a concordance of choice tributes to the great Genoese, his grand discovery, and his greatness of mind and purpose by Dickey, J. M. (John Marcus)