cy·cle   (sī'kəl)    n.   An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs: Sunspots increase and decrease in intensity in an 11-year cycle. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon: A year constitutes a cycle of the seasons. A periodically repeated sequence of events: the cycle of birth, growth, and death; a cycle of reprisal and retaliation. The aggregate of traditional poems or stories organized around a central theme or hero: the Arthurian cycle. A series of poems or songs on the same theme: Schubert's song cycles. The orbit of a celestial body. A long period of time; an age. The aggregate of traditional poems or stories organized around a central theme or hero: the Arthurian cycle. A series of poems or songs on the same theme: Schubert's song cycles. A bicycle, motorcycle, or similar vehicle. Botany A circular or whorled arrangement of flower parts such as those of petals or sepals. Linguistics In generative grammar, the principle that allows an ordered set of linguistic rules or operations to apply repeatedly to successive stages of a derivation. Often used with the. v.   cy·cled, cy·cling, cy·cles v.   intr. To occur in or pass through a cycle. To move in or as if in a cycle. To ride a bicycle, motorcycle, or similar vehicle. v.   tr. To use in or put through a cycle: cycled the heavily soiled laundry twice; cycling the recruits through eight weeks of basic training. [Middle English, from Late Latin cyclus, from Greek kuklos, circle; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots.] cy'cler n.

Cycle

Cy"cle\ (s?"k'l), n. [F. ycle, LL. cyclus, fr. Gr. ky`klos ring or circle, cycle; akin to Skr. cakra wheel, circle. See Wheel.]

1. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres. --Milton.

2. An interval of time in which a certain succession of events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of something peculiar; as, the cycle of the seasons, or of the year.

Wages . . . bear a full proportion . . . to the medium of provision during the last bad cycle of twenty years. --Burke.

3. An age; a long period of time.

Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. --Tennyson.

4. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar. [Obs.]

We . . . present our gardeners with a complete cycle of what is requisite to be done throughout every month of the year. --Evelyn.

5. The circle of subjects connected with the exploits of the hero or heroes of some particular period which have served as a popular theme for poetry, as the legend of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, and that of Charlemagne and his paladins.

6. (Bot.) One entire round in a circle or a spire; as, a cycle or set of leaves. --Gray.

7. A bicycle or tricycle, or other light velocipede.

Calippic cycle, a period of 76 years, or four Metonic cycles; -- so called from Calippus, who proposed it as an improvement on the Metonic cycle.

Cycle of eclipses, a period of about 6,586 days, the time of revolution of the moon's node; -- called Saros by the Chaldeans.

Cycle of indiction, a period of 15 years, employed in Roman and ecclesiastical chronology, not founded on any astronomical period, but having reference to certain judicial acts which took place at stated epochs under the Greek emperors.

Cycle of the moon, or Metonic cycle, a period of 19 years, after the lapse of which the new and full moon returns to the same day of the year; -- so called from Meton, who first proposed it.

Cycle of the sun, Solar cycle, a period of 28 years, at the end of which time the days of the month return to the same days of the week. The dominical or Sunday letter follows the same order; hence the solar cycle is also called the cycle of the Sunday letter. In the Gregorian calendar the solar cycle is in general interrupted at the end of the century.

cycle

1. n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker wants more of (noted hacker Bill Gosper described himself as a "cycle junkie"). One can describe an instruction as taking so many `clock cycles'. Often the computer can access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so one speaks also of `memory cycles'. These are technical meanings of cycle. The jargon meaning comes from the observation that there are only so many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a computer the cycles get divided up among the users. The more cycles the computer spends working on your program rather than someone else's, the faster your program will run. That's why every hacker wants more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer to respond.
2. By extension, a notional unit of _human_ thought power, emphasizing that lots of things compete for the typical hacker's think time. "I refused to get involved with the Rubik's Cube back when it was big. Knew I'd burn too many cycles on it if I let myself."
3. vt. Syn. {bounce} (sense 4), 120 reset; from the phrase `cycle power'. "Cycle the machine again, that serial port's still hung."

cycle 

Main Entry: ¹cy·cle
Pronunciation: 'sI-k&l
Function: noun
1 : a recurring series of events: as a (1) : aseries of stages through which an organism tends to pass once in a fixed order cycle of birth, growth, senescence and death —T. C. Schneirla & Gerard Piel>;also : a series of stages through which a population of organisms tends to pass more or less in synchrony cycle> —see LIFE CYCLE (2) : a series of physiological, biochemical, or psychological stages that recur in the same individual—see CARDIAC CYCLE, MENSTRUAL CYCLE;KREBS CYCLE b : one complete performance of a vibration, electric oscillation, current alternation, or otherperiodic process c : a series of ecological stages through which a substance tends to pass and which usually but not always leads back to the starting point cycle ofnitrogen in the living world>
2 : RING 2 —cy·clic /'sI-klik also'sik-lik/ or cy·cli·cal /'sI-kli-k&l, 'sik-li-/ adjective —cy·cli·cal·ly /-k(&-)lE/ also cy·clic·ly /'sI-kli-klE, 'sik-li-/ adverb

cycle cy·cle (sī'kəl)
n.

1. An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs.
2. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon.
3. A periodically repeated sequence of events.

cycle   (sī'kəl)  Pronunciation Key  A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon. See also period. A circular or whorled arrangement of flower parts such as those of petals or stamens.

cycle unit
A basic unit of computation, one period of a computer clock.
Each instruction takes a number of clock cycles. Often the computer can access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so one speaks also of "memory cycles".
Every hacker wants more cycles (noted hacker Bill Gosper describes himself as a "cycle junkie"). There are only so many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a computer the cycles get divided up among the users. The more cycles the computer spends working on your program rather than someone else's, the faster your program will run. That's why every hacker wants more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer to respond.
The use of the term "cycle" for a computer clock period can probably be traced back to the rotation of a generator generating alternating current though computers generally use a clock signal which is more like a square wave. Interestingly, the earliest mechanical calculators, e.g. Babbage's Difference Engine, really did have parts which rotated in true cycles.
[The Jargon File]
(1997-09-30)