Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Carnot's cycle \Car`not's" cy"cle\ [After N. L. S. Carnot,
   French physicist.] (Thermodynamics)
   An ideal heat-engine cycle in which the working fluid goes
   through the following four successive operations: (1)
   Isothermal expansion to a desired point; (2) adiabatic
   expansion to a desired point; (3) isothermal compression to
   such a point that (4) adiabatic compression brings it back to
   its initial state.