period
    n 1: an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened
         the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue
         period" [syn: time period, period of time, period]
    2: the interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly
       repeating phenomenon
    3: (ice hockey) one of three divisions into which play is
       divided in hockey games
    4: a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks
       formed; "ganoid fishes swarmed during the earlier geological
       periods" [syn: period, geological period]
    5: the end or completion of something; "death put a period to
       his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my
       tranquility"
    6: the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant
       women from puberty to menopause; "the women were sickly and
       subject to excessive menstruation"; "a woman does not take
       the gout unless her menses be stopped"--Hippocrates; "the
       semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same
       time of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females"--
       Aristotle [syn: menstruation, menses, menstruum,
       catamenia, period, flow]
    7: a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative
       sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations; "in
       England they call a period a stop" [syn: period, point,
       full stop, stop, full point]

Period \Pe"ri*od\, n. [L. periodus, Gr. peri`odos a going round,
   a way round, a circumference, a period of time; peri` round,
   about + "odo`s a way: cf. F. p['e]riode.]
   1. A portion of time as limited and determined by some
      recurring or cyclic phenomenon, as by the completion of a
      revolution of one of the heavenly bodies; a division of
      time, as a series of years, months, or days, in which
      something is completed, and ready to recommence and go on
      in the same order; as, the period of the sun, or the
      earth, or a comet; the period of an electromagnetic wave
      is the time interval between maxima.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Hence: A stated and recurring interval of time; more
      generally, an interval of time specified or left
      indefinite; a certain series of years, months, days, or
      the like; a time; a cycle; an age; an epoch; as, the
      period of the Roman republic.
      [1913 Webster]

            How by art to make plants more lasting than their
            ordinary period.                      --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Geol.) One of the great divisions of geological time; as,
      the Tertiary period; the Glacial period. See the Chart of
      Geology.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. The termination or completion of a revolution, cycle,
      series of events, single event, or act; hence, a limit; a
      bound; an end; a conclusion. --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

            So spake the archangel Michael; then paused,
            As at the world's great period.       --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Evils which shall never end till eternity hath a
            period.                               --Jer. Taylor.
      [1913 Webster]

            This is the period of my ambition.    --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Rhet.) A complete sentence, from one full stop to
      another; esp., a well-proportioned, harmonious sentence.
      "Devolved his rounded periods." --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]

            Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.
                                                  --B. Johnson.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: The period, according to Heyse, is a compound sentence
         consisting of a protasis and apodosis; according to
         Becker, it is the appropriate form for the coordinate
         propositions related by antithesis or causality.
         --Gibbs.
         [1913 Webster]

   6. (Print.) The punctuation point [.] that marks the end of a
      complete sentence, or of an abbreviated word.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. (Math.) One of several similar sets of figures or terms
      usually marked by points or commas placed at regular
      intervals, as in numeration, in the extraction of roots,
      and in circulating decimals.
      [1913 Webster]

   8. (Med.) The time of the exacerbation and remission of a
      disease, or of the paroxysm and intermission.
      [1913 Webster]

   9. (Mus.) A complete musical sentence.
      [1913 Webster]

   10. (Sports) One of the specified time intervals into which a
       game is divided; as, there are three periods in a hockey
       game.
       [PJC]

   11. (Education) One of the specified time intervals into
       which the academic day is divided; as, my calculus class
       is in the first period.
       [PJC]

   12. The time interval during which a woman is menstruating,
       or the event of a single menstruation; as, her period was
       late this month.
       [PJC]

   The period, the present or current time, as distinguished
      from all other times.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Time; date; epoch; era; age; duration; limit; bound;
        end; conclusion; determination.
        [1913 Webster]

Period \Pe"ri*od\ (p[=e]"r[i^]*[u^]d), v. t.
   To put an end to. [Obs.] --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

Period \Pe"ri*od\, v. i.
   To come to a period; to conclude. [Obs.] "You may period upon
   this, that," etc. --Felthman.
   [1913 Webster]

period

   1.  The time between repetitions of any cyclic event
   or phenomenon such as an electromagnetic wave or planetary
   orbit.  Period is the reciprocal of frequency.

   2.  American for full stop.

   (2010-07-25)