Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Saros \Sa"ros\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?] (Astron)
   A Chaldean astronomical period or cycle, the length of which
   has been variously estimated from 3,600 years to 3,600 days,
   or a little short of 10 years. --Brande & C.

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.