elliptical

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   In a shape of, or reminding of, an ellipse

   In a shape of, or reminding of, an ellipse; oval.

   • Having admitted that the projectile was describing an orbit around the moon, this orbit must necessarily be elliptical; science proves that it must be so.
2. 2

   Of, or showing ellipsis

   Of, or showing ellipsis; having a word or words omitted.

   • If he is sometimes elliptical and obscure, it is because he has so much to tell us.
3. 3

   Concise, condensed.

   • Browning's dark and elliptical mode of speech, like his love of the grotesque, was simply a characteristic of his, a trick of his temperament, and had little or nothing to do with whether what he was expressing was profound or superficial.
   • He was called a tramp; but that was only an elliptical way of saying that he was a philosopher, an artist, a traveller, a naturalist and a discoverer.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Elliptic.

   2. 5

      An elliptical galaxy.

   3. 6

      An elliptical trainer.

The neighborhood

• synonymelliptic