a. and sb. [mod. f. L. armilla; cf. Fr. armillaire. Bailey and Chambers cite a mod.L. armillāris. See -ARY.]

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  A.  adj. Of or pertaining to bracelets or hoops. Armillary Sphere: a skeleton celestial globe or sphere, consisting merely of metal rings or hoops representing the equator, ecliptic, tropics, arctic and antarctic circles, and colures, revolving on an axis, within a wooden horizon.

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1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., III. 169. All the Circles of the Armillary Sphære.

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1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Globe (J.). That Sphere is called an Armillary Sphere, because it appears in the form of several Circular Rings, or Bracelets, put together in a due Position.

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1797.  Encycl. Brit., II. 420/2. An armillary astrolabe, like that which had been used by Hipparchus and Ptolemy.

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1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), II. 297. Never had any armillary sphere so many zones.

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1856.  Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, VIII. 56. Her quadrant and armillary dials.

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  B.  sb. = ARMILLA 4.

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1841.  Brewster, Martyrs Sc., II. ii. (1856), 123. Equatorial armillaries.

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