Forms: α. 4–5 sper (5 sperre), speere, 4–6 spere, 6 Sc. speir, speyr; 4–5 spire, 5 spyere, Sc. spir. β. 5– sphere (5 sphyre), 6–7 sphear(e, 7 spheere; 6–7 spæer, 7 sphære, sphaer(e. [ad. OF. espere (13th c.), later sphere (mod.F. sphère) or late L. sphēra, earlier sphæra, ad. Gr. σφαῖρα ball. So It. sfera, Sp. and Pg. esfera; MDu. spere, speer (Du. sfeer), MHG. spære, spere (G. sphäre).]
I. 1. The apparent outward limit of space, conceived as a hollow globe enclosing (and at all points equidistant from the earth; the visible vault of heaven, in which the celestial bodies appear to have their place.
Oblique, parallel, right sphere: see OBLIQUE a. 2 b, PARALLEL a. 1 b, RIGHT a. 3 a.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1548. Quen sa fele yeier ar wroken oute þe mikel spere [Gött. spire] es rune aboute.
c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 4867. Alle þe fire þat es in þe spere, And under erthe, and aboven erthe here.
c. 1430. Lydg., Life our Lady (Harl. MS. 629), fol. 43 b. As the synne dothe in heuen shyne In mydday speere dovn to vs by-lyne.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VIII. 1186. The mery day sprang fra the oryent…. Heich in the sper, the signes maid declayr.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. viii. 13. Or [= ere] the speir his owris rollit rycht Sa far about that it wes skars mydnycht.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. x. 56. He wondred much … What stately building durst so high extend Her loftie towres vnto the starry sphere.
1634. Milton, Comus, 241. Sweet Echo,… Sweet Queen of Parly, Daughter of the Sphear.
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint. (1858), 135. If a star Should leave the sphære.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 352. The highest Heaven with all its imagined Circle[s], is called the Sphere.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 204. The face of Nature shines, from where earth seems, Far stretch’d around, to meet the bending sphere.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, III. 89. But I An eagle clang an eagle to the sphere.
1854. Tomlinson, Arago’s Astron., 17. They had remarked that, amidst the general movement of the sphere, one of the stars of the Lesser Bear appeared always to remain in the same position.
fig. 1608. Chapman, Dk. of Byron, III. i. 155. When I appear’d from battle, the whole sphere And full sustainer of the state we bear.
a. 1711. Ken, Psyche, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 204. God is our circumambient Sphere.
b. A material representation of the apparent form of the heavens; a globe or other construction illustrating the place and motions of the celestial bodies. (See also ARMILLARY a.)
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 26. The excellence of the spere solide … shewyth Manifeste the diuerse assenciouns of signes in diuerse places.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxv. 115. Sum has … astrolabres of gold, sum speres of precious stanes.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1039. Whan I shall teche you the spere.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 73. Set your Sphere before you, and first turn it so that bothe the Poles may touch the Horizont.
1674. Moxon, Tutor to Astron. & Geog. (ed. 3), App. 201. As a Sphear is an Astronomical Instrument, it is a complication of material Circles only, so fitted together that they represent all the imaginary Circles and motions of the eighth Sphear, and the Circles and motions of all the Planets about the Earth. Ibid. (1701), Math. Instr., 19. Sphere, made of Silver or Brass Hoops, or Rings, representing the Principal Circles of the Sphere (called a material Sphere).
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 341. They had the use of the sphere, and were acquainted with the zodiac.
1821. Turner, Arts & Sci., 172. He [Atlas] was … the first who represented the world by a sphere.
1864. Spencer, Illust. Progress, 172. Then came the sphere of Berosus,… and the quadrant of Ptolemy.
2. One or other of the concentric, transparent, hollow globes imagined by the older astronomers as revolving round the earth and respectively carrying with them the several heavenly bodies (moon, sun, planets, and fixed stars).
The number of these was originally supposed to be eight, subsequently increased to nine and finally to ten by the addition of the PRIMUM MOBILE and the Crystalline sphere (see CRYSTALLINE a. 5).
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1809. His lighte gost ful blysfully is went Vp to þe holwghnesse of þe seuenþe spere. Ibid. (c. 1381), Parl. Foules, 59. After shewede he hym the nyne speris.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 65. Yn ordynance of þe heuens and of þe speres, and þe disposicioun of þe planetes.
c. 1450. Treat. Astrol. (MS. Ashm. 337), 8 b. In the firmament above the viij spere there is a brode cercle ful of sterris.
a. 1533[?]. Frith, Answ. More (1548), 62. Ye hyghest sphere … with his swift mouying doth violently drawe the inferiour Spheares with him.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 10. This region do in it contayne .x. spheres.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, I. xxvii. (1628), 86. Some will know Heauen as perfectly, as if they had been hurried about in euery Spheare.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 49. I grant that two bodies placed beyond the tenth Spheare … could not behold each other.
1695. Ld. Preston, Boeth., I. (1712), 8. He saw of every wandring Star The various Motions through each Sphear.
1827. Pollok, Course T., X. The spheres stood still, and every star Stood still and listened.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 20. This notion of the seven heavens appears to have been taken from the ‘seven spheres.’
b. In references to the harmonious sound supposed to be produced by the motion of these spheres; in later use esp. in the phr. the music of the spheres.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 61. Aftyr that the melodye herde he That comyth of thilke speris thryes thre.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), V. i. (1859), 70. The cause of this melodye is the merueylous mouyng, and wonderfull tornyng of the spyeres.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. i. 121. I had rather heare you to solicit that, Then Musicke from the spheares. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 84. His voyce was propertied As all the tuned Spheres.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 191. Our Organs are the Musick of the Spheres to them.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 202. If nature thunder’d in his op’ning ears, And stunn’d him with the music of the spheres.
1827. Pollok, Course T., I. The chiming spheres, By God’s own finger touched to harmony.
a. 1882. Rossetti, Site Mulberry Tree, 12, Wks. 1886, I. 285. This deaf drudge, to whom no length of ears Sufficed to catch the music of the spheres.
c. Used as a standard of comparison to denote a great difference in rank, intelligence, etc.
1633. Marmion, Fine Companion, IV. i. He may be styl’d a civil gentleman, ten spheres below a fool.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. (1658), 13. Although their [i.e., tutelary spirits] condition and fortunes may place them many Spheres above the multitude.
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, xv. Erelong he meets Ralph, and discovers that he has distanced him by a sphere.
d. A place of abode different from the present earth or world; a heaven.
1592. Soliman & Pers., I. i. 29. Love. Now will I vp into the brightsome sphere, From whence I sprung, till [etc.].
1680. R. Graham, Poems, 2. She … from her lower Circle there Took flight into an higher Sphær.
1817. Moore, Lalla Rookh, Fireworshippers, IV. 344. If there be some happier sphere, Where fadeless truth like ours is dear.
1863. J. Thomson, Sunday at Hampstead, II. iv. Being lord in Mohammed’s seventh sphere.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 337. A future sphere, where the injustices of life shall be rectified.
3. One or other of the concentric globes formerly supposed to be formed by the four elements, earth, water, air and fire; † also, the globe formed by these elements collectively. Now Hist.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 64. Filosofris … seyn þat undir þe moone is a spere of sotil fier, and in þat is a spere of þe eir, and in eiþer spere of þe watir, and in þe myddil of þe world … spere of þe erþe.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 95. Þe mone, vnder whom ys þe spere of þe elemenz, þat er fyre, Eyre, water, and erthe.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., lxxvi. Ascending vpward ay fro spere to spere, Through aire and watere and the hote fyre.
c. 1450. Lydg., Secrees, 166. To chaunge … from the Erthe the Watir and the Ayr, And parte the Ellementys in ther sperys fayr.
1530. Rastell, Bk. Purgat., II. xiii. The fyre therin wyll ascend to the proper place and spere of the element of the fyre.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. vi. 136. As for the fire, without doubt it hath his sphere (as Aristotle and other Philosophers have held).
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 107. By which it most evincingly appears, that water does gravitate in its own Sphære (as they phrase it).
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci., I. iii. I. 70. The principle that each element seeks its own place, led to the doctrine, that, the place of fire being the highest, there is, above the air, a sphere of fire.
4. With possessive pron. or genitive: The particular sphere (in sense 2) appropriate to, or occupied by, each of the planets (or the fixed stars).
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1495. Furste schal Phebus falle from his spere. Ibid., V. 656. O brighte Lucina,… ren faste aboute thy spere.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 20043. The cours off sterrys alle, Mevnge in ther bryhte sperys. Ibid. (1430–40), Bochas, IX. xxviii. Lyke Phœbus shyning in his mydday spere.
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 338. I perambalit of Pernaso the montayn, Enspirit wyth Mercury fra his goldyn spere.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 7. The Sphere of the Moone which is lowest.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 153. Certaine starres shot madly from their Spheares. Ibid. (1610), Temp., II. i. 183. You would lift the Moone out of her spheare.
1656. S. Holland, Don Zara, 73. I can call down Luna when I list from her sphere.
1736. Gray, Statius, i. 55. The sun’s pale sister, drawn by magic strain, Deserts precipitant her darken’d sphere.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, vi. § 1. We can measure the planetary orbs, and make discoveries in the sphere of the fixed stars.
1821. Byron, Cain, III. i. Suns, moons, and earths, upon their loud-voiced spheres.
1849. M. Arnold, The Voice, 4. As the kindling glances … Which the bright moon lances From her tranquil sphere.
transf. 1781. Cowper, Truth, 400. Go—bid the winter cease to chill the year; Replace the wand’ring comet in his sphere.
b. fig. Of deities, persons or things.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 170. The mychty gode of loue, That sitith hie in to his spir abuf.
1509. Hawes, Joyf. Med., xvi. Now gentyll Jupyter … Sendynge downe trouthe from thy fulgent spere.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 17. A Tale … whose lightest word Would … Make thy two eyes, like Starres, start from their Spheres.
1621. J. Lane, Tritons Trumpet (MS. Reg. 17 B 15, fol. 3). But Chaucer shee bidds com down off his spheare.
c. 1760. Smollett, Ode to Blue-ey’d Ann, 23. When nature from her sphere shall start.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, VI. xxxvi. He … greeted him ’twixt joy and fear, As being of superior sphere.
c. The orbit of a planet. Also fig.
1594. Spenser, Amoretti, lx. Mars in three score yeares doth run his spheare. Ibid. The spheare of Cupid fourty yeares containes.
5. A place, position or station in society; an aggregate of persons of a certain rank or standing.
In early use directly associated with 4 b, and used only of elevated rank.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 100. He is so aboue me, In his bright radience and colaterall light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 71. Any man who shined in such a sphere in that age in Europe.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 66. You are ready … to … complain, that the orbe and sphære in which you are placed is low and mean.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., vii. Wks. 1761, III. 140. I should think myself obliged in conscience to act in my sphere according to that vote.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Sel. Wks. 1898, II. 89. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in.
1820. Scott, Monast., xiv. The young lady, who seemed to have dropped amongst them from another sphere of life.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. vii. 210. The change, for her, was into a higher sphere of society.
b. The group of persons with whom one is directly in contact in society.
1839. J. H. Newman, Par. Sermons, IV. xiii. 235. Each knows little about what goes on in any other sphere than his own.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xx. It was an assurance to him that his power extended beyond his own immediate sphere.
6. A province or domain in which one’s activities or faculties find scope or exercise, or within which they are naturally confined; range or compass of action or study.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. vii. 16. To be call’d into a huge Sphere, and not to be seene to moue in ’t.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 167. Divinity not being the spheare wherin my studies move.
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, II. 75. Ye know the spheres and various tasks assign’d By laws eternal to th’ aërial kind.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. iii. (1904), I. 20. A village is … too narrow a sphere for him.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, viii. That school offered for her powers too limited a sphere.
1884. R. Paton, Scott. Ch., vii. 62. Other labourers in similar spheres had left the gloom unbroken.
b. With possessive pronouns. (Cf. 4.)
1643. R. Baker, Chron. (1653), 587. All this while the King had moved within his own Sphear, and had done nothing out of the Realm.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Builder, 55. They do buy their materials at cheaper rates than those out of whose sphere it is.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 266. Not … thrusting into Business above our Capacity and proper Sphere.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1789), IV. 147. Each personage is distinct from the rest, acts in his sphere, and cannot be confounded with any other of the dramatis personæ.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 175/1. In his new sphere Seckendorf showed the same activity and good will towards the people as before.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., xxxiii. I. 495. Each of which [sc. executive and legislative powers] forms its view as to the matters falling within its sphere.
c. In phrases with in and out of, denoting suitability, or the want of it, to surroundings or environment.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, IV. i. 10. The Temple, where this glorious Plate shined in its proper sphear.
1670. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XV. § 78. He … told them that all the time he was in France he was out of his sphere.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), II. 261. He was no sooner at Rome, than he found himself in his sphere.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Each & All, i. She is in her own sphere wherever there is grace, wherever there is enjoyment.
7. The whole province, domain or range of some quality, thing, etc.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., II. Wks. 1856, I. 25. Ladie, erect your gratious simmetry: Shine in the spheare of sweete affection.
a. 1668. Davenant, News fr. Plimouth, I. i. London, the Spheare of Light and harmony.
1704. Swift, Mech. Oper. Spirit, Wks. 1768, I. 205. There are three general ways of ejaculating the soul, or transporting it beyond the sphere of matter.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 169, ¶ 5. They see a little, and believe that there is nothing beyond their sphere of vision.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), I. 105. In this course, he came within the sphere of the trade wind.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, i. § 1. 7. Extending principles which belong altogether to building, into the sphere of architecture proper.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 8. The sphere of mind was dark and mysterious to him.
b. Esp. of action, activity, operation, etc.
1661. Cowley, Gov. Oliver Cromwell, Wks. (Grosart), II. 299/2. The bounds of those laws which have been left them, as the sphere of their authority.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., Pref. Ess. (Ker), I. 12. All which, by lengthening of their chain, makes the sphere of their activity the larger.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 154. The sphere of action of … the greatest part of mankind is much narrower than the government they live under.
1783. Burke, Rep. Aff. India, Wks. 1842, II. 26. The spirit … prevailed not only in Bengal, but seems, more or less, to have diffused itself through the whole sphere of the company’s influence.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. 27. The distrust … had increased in proportion as they approached the sphere of action.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xx. 39. Miss Ophelia resolved to confine her sphere of operation and instruction chiefly to her own chamber.
c. Similarly with a and pl. Also ellipt.
1726. Butler, Serm. Rolls Chap., xv. 309. A Sphere of Knowledge … level to our Capacities.
1757. Burke, Abridgm. Eng. Hist., II. iii. Wks. (1812), 288. He agreed to an accommodation which … only left to himself a sphere of government.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. iii. 61. His history belongs henceforth to a wider sphere.
1867. Dk. Argyll, Reign of Law, ii. 55. They [Science and Religion] belong to wholly different spheres of thought.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xiii. 179. Cæsar could only wish for a long absence in some new sphere of usefulness.
d. Sphere of action, influence, or interest, in recent use, a region or territory (esp. in Africa or Asia) within which a particular nation claims, or is admitted, to have a special interest for political or economic purposes. Also ellipt. and attrib.
1885. Earl Granville, in Hertslet, Map of Africa by Treaty (1894), II. 596. A Memorandum of Agreement for separating and defining the spheres of action of Great Britain and Germany in those parts of Africa where the Colonial interests of the two countries might conflict. Ibid., 598. Their respective spheres of influence in the territories on the Gulf of Guinea.
1890. Sir C. W. Dilke, Probl. Greater Britain, V. II. 193. Our South African ‘sphere.’
1898. Westm. Gaz., 25 July, 1/2. There is no necessary opposition between the sphere of influence policy and the ‘open-door’ policy.
II. 8. Geom. A figure formed by the complete revolution of a semicircle about its diameter; a round body of which the surface is at all points equidistant from the center.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxvii. (1495), 928. The Spere is a fygure shape alle rounde and is pere to Solid in all partyes.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), V. xiv. 107. Alle thre dymensions in a round body nys but the same, and yf ther be ony difference the spere is not parfyte.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 17. A Sphere is a sound figure, made by the tournynge of half a circle, tyll it ende where it began to be moued.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XI. def. 12. 316. A Sphere is a figure most apt to all motion, as hauing no base whereon to stay.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, I. ii. (1614), 10. Neyther is it yet absolutely round and a perfect sphere.
1698. Keill, Exam. Th. Earth (1734), 223. A Sphere … whose Center of Gravity coincides with its Center of Magnitude.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v., Parallel planes, which divide the diameter of a sphere into equal parts, divide the surface of the sphere into equal parts at the same time.
1840. Lardner, Geom., 204. The diameter … on which the generating circle turns is called the axis of the sphere, and its extremities … are called the poles of the sphere.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 394. Draw the complete plan, and project … the external form of the sphere.
† b. The containing surface of such a figure or body. Obs.–1
a. 1631. Donne, Poems (1650), 7. Shine here to us, and thou art every where; This bed thy center is, these wals, thy spheare.
9. A body of a globular or orbicular form; a globe or ball.
1388. Wyclif, Isaiah xxix. 3. And Y schal cumpasse as a round speere, ether trendil, in thi cumpasse.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 227. In the hiȝhte of whom is a spere of brasse conteynenge the bones of Iulyus Cesar.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 49. With obelisks, sphearz, and white bearz, all of stone, vpon theyr curioouz basez.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 355. Of Celestial Bodies first the Sun A mightie Spheare he fram’d.
1747. Franklin, Lett., etc. Wks. 1840, V. 188. Our spheres are fixed on iron axes, which pass through them.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, i. The changing moon forsakes this shadowy sphere.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxviii. 237. If we place a sphere of glass in a glass trough of hot oil.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 164. Lying in dark-purple spheres of sea.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Plants, vi. 95. The fourth [cube] was converted into a minute sphere surrounded by transparent fluid.
fig. 1671. Milton, Samson, 172. For him I reckon not in high estate Whom long descent of birth Or the sphear of fortune raises.
1701. Norris, Ideal World, I. vi. 389. He … can never go out of her sphere, whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.
1853. T. T. Lynch, Self-Improvement, 33. Religion … at last fills the sphere, the eternity of his being.
b. The rounded mass of such a body.
1555. Eden, Decades, I. I. (Arb.), 67. The iudgement of auncient wryters as touchynge the bignesse of the Sphere and compasse of the Globe.
1663. S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxxvi. (1687), 470. To colour the cheeks of our Apples, and enlarge the Sphere of our Cabbages.
1827. Hood, Plea Mids. Fairies, i. With a broader sphere The Moon looks down on Ceres and her sheaves.
1830. Tennyson, Mermaid, 54. All things … Would lean out from the hollow sphere of the sea.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 79. Until the flat surface is nearly equal to the diameter of the sphere of the ball.
c. The surface or material of a circular object.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XIV. 154. A girdle, whose rich sphere a hundred studs impress’d.
10. † a. = GLOBE sb. 4, ORB sb.1 11. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 235. The riȝt hond holdynge þe spere, þat is þe roundenesse and þe liknesse of þe world.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 91 b. A hande of golde holdyng a spere of the worlde.
b. An orb of the mundane system; a planet or star.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, X. H iij b. A hall, a hall, Roome for the Spheres, the Orbes celestiall Will daunce Kemps Iigge.
1607. Shaks., Timon, I. i. 66. All kinde of Natures That labour on the bosome of this Sphere.
17[?]. Watts, Hymn, ‘God is a Name my Soul adores,’ ii. Thy Voice produc’d the Sea and Spheres.
1837. Babbage, 9th Bridgewater Treat., iii. 57. He has traced the orbits of earth’s sister spheres.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases Morals, i. 20. We attempt ambitiously to measure the remote movement of the spheres.
III. 11. attrib. a. In the sense ‘of or pertaining to the celestial spheres,’ as sphere-fire, -harmony, -melody, -metal, -music, -song, -tune.
1609. Markham, Famous Wh., (1868), 33. Angels learnt their sphear-tunes from my voice.
c. 1630. Milton, Univ. Carrier, ii. 5. So hung his destiny never to rot,… Made of sphear-metal, never to decay Untill his revolution was at stay.
1820. Shelley, Cloud, 71. The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. vi. The Sphere-music of Parlementary eloquence begins. Ibid. (1840), Heroes, iii. (1904), 84. The Greeks fabled or Sphere-Harmonies.
1858. Sears, Athan., xvii. 143. We … strike out bravely for the sphere-melodies.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 24. I shall no more dare to … Pass off human lisp as echo of the sphere-song out of reach.
b. In the sense ‘having the form of a sphere,’ as sphere-crystal.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 63. It crystallises in the form of so-called Sphere-crystals,… consisting of crystalline elements disposed in a radiate manner.
1885. Goodale, Physiol. Bot., 53. Both forms have been termed Sphæraphides and Sphere-crystals.
12. Comb., as sphere-born, -descended, -filled, -found, -headed, -like, -tuned adjs.
c. 1630. Milton, At a Solemn Music, 2. *Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers.
1747. Collins, Passions, 95. O Musick! *sphere-descended maid.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, etc. 82. The holy image of the *sphere-filled air.
1747. Collins, Odd to Liberty, iv. 34. The secret builder knew to choose Each *sphere-found gem of richest hues.
1786. Abercrombie, Arr., 56, in Gard. Assist. *Sphere headed greater [thistle].
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 23. In manner *Spherelike it hath one within an other.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, V. 119. Last of all there should appear, Seven Eunuchs sphere-like Singing here.
1896. Pop. Sci. Monthly, Feb., 507. The water … breaks up into spherelike globules.
1636. T. Sanford, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 50. And how your Swaines will leave Posteritie *Sphære-tuned Sonnets.
1752. H. M[oore], To Mem. of Dr. Doddridge, xi. I seem to … catch sweet Music from thy Sphere-tun’d Tongue.
