neptune

plural neptunes

1. historicalA brass or copper pan used to evaporate salt water to obtain salt.

1. Romanhuman sciencesThe Roman god of earthquakes and the ocean, the counterpart of Poseidon in Greek mythology.

   VVe are the Neptunes of the Ocean, / And ſuch as traffique, ſhall pay ſacrifice / Of their beſt lading; […]

   1624 April 27 (date licensed; Gregorian calendar), Philip Massinger, The Renegado, a Tragæcomedie. […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1630, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, signature C3, recto

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   But to returne to Theſeus, […] Pitheus alſo had geuen it out abroade, that he vvas begotten of Neptune, becauſe the Troezenians haue this god in great veneration, and doe vvorſhippe him as patron and protector of their cittie, making offerings to him of their firſt fruites: and they haue for the marke and ſtampe of their money, the three picked mace, vvhich is the ſigne of Neptune, called his Trident.

   1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “Theseus”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 3

   Full often hath ſhe goſſipt, by my ſide, / And ſat, vvith me on Neptunes yellovv ſands / Marking th'embarked traders on the flood: […]

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature B4, verso

   For vvhile our Neptune doth a Trident ſhake, / Steel'd vvith thoſe piercing Heads, Dean, Monck and Blake, / And vvhile Jove governs in the higheſt Sphere, / Vainly in Hell let Pluto domineer.

   a. 1679 (date written), Andrew Marvell, “The Character of Holland”, in Miscellaneous Poems, London: […] [Edward Horton] for Robert Boulter, […], published 1681, →OCLC, page 115

   Apollo past toward the sacred wood, / Which from the inmost depths of its green glen / Echoes the voice of Neptune,— […]

   a. 1823 (date written), Homer, “Hymn to Mercury. Translated from the Greek of Homer.”, in Percy Bysshe Shelley, transl., edited by Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, stanza XXXI, page 305

   He looked quite extraordinary. He was wearing a long, pale-green tunic fastened at the waist […] and in one hand he held what looked like a huge, three-pronged fork. He grinned at the children a little sheepishly. 'I'm supposed to be Neptune,' he said. 'This is my Trident.'

   1963, Nina Bawden, “‘Someone is Watching Me’”, in The Secret Passage, London: Pan Books, published 1972, →ISBN, page 79

   Synonyms: Neptunus

2. broadlyA personification of the ocean.
3. broadlyastronomyThe eighth and furthest planet in the Solar System in terms of average distance from the Sun; an ice giant, by size it is the fourth largest planet.First known use 1846

   At a meeting of the French Academy of Science, M. Leverrier [Urbain Le Verrier] presented a fifth and final memoir on the new planet, which M. [François] Arago proposes to be called Neptune.

   1846 November 21, “A New Planet—Beautiful Discovery”, in William and Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, volume VI, number 151 (New Series), Edinburgh: W[illiam] and R[obert] Chambers, […], →OCLC, page 336, column 1

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   It was on the first day of the new year that the announcement was made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that the motion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planets that wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy had already called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocity in December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated to interest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants were unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside the astronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause any very great excitement. Scientific people, however, found the intelligence remarkable enough, even before it became known that the new body was rapidly growing larger and brighter, that its motion was quite different from the orderly progress of the planets, and that the deflection of Neptune and its satellite was becoming now of an unprecedented kind.

   1897 December, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Star”, in Tales of Space and Time, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday & McClure Co., published 1899, →OCLC, pages 37–38

   The Sun's heat drives the weather patterns on Earth. But Neptune is too distant for sublight to stir its atmosphere significantly. The temperature is almost unimaginably cold—about -352°F (-214°C, 59°K). […] Neptune greeted Voyager with a grand variety of clouds, spots, and bands. They must be caused not by the Sun but by Neptune itself—by heat rising from its interior.

   1990, Mark Littmann, “Voyager 2 at Neptune: Beyond Imagination”, in Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System […], revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Wiley Science Editions, →ISBN, page 221

   The duration of planetary orbits ranges widely. Mercury—the closest planet to the sun—has an 88-day orbit, while Earth, the third from the sun, takes 365 days (1 year). Mars needs almost twice that time to fly around the sun, while Saturn takes 10,759 days (29.4 years). Neptune, the furthest planet from the sun, has an orbit of 60,190 days (164.9 years).

   2024 June 27, Zulfikar Abbany, “Asteroids and Comets: What’s the Difference?”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 15 May 2026

   Synonyms: mul:♆, mul:⯉

4. A place in the United States:
   1. broadlyA township in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
   2. broadlyAn unincorporated community in Center Township, Mercer County, Ohio.
   3. broadlyAn unincorporated community in Jackson County, West Virginia.
   4. broadlyAn unincorporated community in the town of Ithaca, Richland County, Wisconsin.

plural Neptunes

1. historicalnauticalA sailor acting as Neptune (proper noun sense 1), the Roman god of the ocean, during a ceremony on board a ship when it is crossing the equator.