Dictionary

gibbous en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈd͡ʒɪbəs/
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈɡɪbəs/

Etymology

From Middle English gibbous, from Latin gibbus (“humped, hunched”), probably cognate with cubō (“bend oneself, lie down”), Italian gobba (“humpback”), Ancient Greek κῡφός (kūphós, “humpback, bent”), κύβος (kúbos, “cube, vertebra”), Spanish giboso (“humped”). Also ultimately compare dialectal Norwegian keiv (“slanted, wrong”), German schief (“crooked, slanting”) and Dutch scheef (“crooked, slanting”).

Meanings

1. Curved or bulged outward.
   • In fact, what these gibbous human shapes specially represented was ready money—money insistently ready [...] 1886 May, Thomas Hardy, “chapter 22”, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:
2. (of a celestial body) Having more than half (but not the whole) of its disc illuminated.
   • On December 7, 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts took a photograph of a gibbous Earth at a distance of eighteen thousand miles from its surface. 2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books, published 2022, page 252:
   • The moving moon, full, gibbous, or crescent-shaped, shone at last for the navigators of the eighteenth century like a luminous hand on the clock of heaven. 1995, Dava Sobel, Longitude, Herper Perennial, published 2011, →ISBN, page 89:
   • A glint of the gibbous moon reflected off the water, but it was hard to see the building clearly in the dark forest. 2024, Margaret Killjoy, The Sapling Cage, →ISBN:
3. Humpbacked.
   • A pointed flinty rock, all bare and black, Grew gibbous from behind the mountain's back; 1697, Virgil, “The Eighth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

Forms

Coordinates

crescent

Deriveds

gibbousness · gibbous moon · gibbosity · subgibbous · gibbously · gibbose · waning gibbous

Synonyms

protuberant · crookbacked · bulging · convex · humpbacked

Translations (39)

gd crotach (phase of moon or planet) · hu dagadó (phase of moon or planet) · cs vypouklý (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · es giboso (phase of moon or planet) · de dreiviertel (phase of moon or planet) · hu kidudorodó (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · bg изпъкнал (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · es gibado (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · hu domború (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ru выступающий (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · nl convex (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · hu dudorodó (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · hu duzzadt (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · it gibboso (phase of moon or planet) · fi kupera (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · el αμφίκυρτος (phase of moon or planet) · pt giboso (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · nv nitʼą́ą́ hanádzá (phase of moon or planet) · az qabarıq (phase of moon or planet) · sv oval (phase of moon or planet) · ang ġehofored (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · bg издут (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · fr gibbeux (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ka გამობურცული (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ca gibós (phase of moon or planet) · fr gibbeux (phase of moon or planet) · ru выпуклый (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · nl bolrond (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ang hoferede (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ka ამოზნექილი (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ka ამობურცული (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · ru освещённый более, чем на половину (phase of moon or planet) · eo ĝiba (phase of moon or planet) · fi kupera (phase of moon or planet) · pt giboso (phase of moon or planet) · el αμφίκυρτος (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · de gewölbt (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · hu duzzadó (characterized by convexity; protuberant) · hu telő (phase of moon or planet)