globe

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A body with the shape of a sphere, especially a representation of the earth in the form of a hollow ball.
• noun The earth.
• noun A planet.
• noun A spherical or bowllike container, especially a glass cover for a light bulb.
• noun A sphere emblematic of sovereignty; an orb.
• intransitive & transitive verb To assume the shape of or form into a sphere.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To form into a round ball or sphere; gather round or into a circle; conglobate.
• To raise as a globe or sphere.
• To become round or globe-shaped. Mrs. Browning.
• noun In golf, the ball.
• noun A spherical solid body; a ball; a sphere; a body all points on whose surface are equidistant from a point within it (a center).
• noun Anything globular or nearly so, whether solid or hollow: as, the globe of the eye; the globe of a balloon.
• noun Especially— A spherical glass shade for a lamp.
• noun A large globular glass receptacle filled with water, in which fish are placed for exhibition, or which is used as a magnifying glass or illuminator.
• noun The earth: usually with the definite article.
• noun An artificial sphere on whose surface is drawn a map or representation of the earth or of the heavens, called in the former case a terrestrial globe, and in the latter a celestial globe.
• noun Terrestrial globes are made so as to revolve freely about an axis representing that of the earth. This axis turns in a vertical brass circle divided into degrees, or smaller divisions; and this represents the meridian of any station. This meridian has a motion in its own plane, so that the axis can be brought into parallelism with that of the earth at the assumed station. The meridian moves in a fixed horizontal circle of wood, called the horizon, which is divided into signs, days, etc. Cheaper globes are made without these circles. Celestial globes of the ordinary kind, with the drawing, as in terrestrial globes, on the outer or convex surface, represent the stars as they would appear in a mirror, or as if viewed from without the celestial sphere, and not as they appear on a map of the heavens; but globes are also made with the heavenly bodies represented on the inner surface as they appear from the earth.
• noun In her., same as mound.
• noun A mass; company; group; throng; body.
• noun World, etc. See earth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To gather or form into a globe.
• noun A round or spherical body, solid or hollow; a body whose surface is in every part equidistant from the center; a ball; a sphere.
• noun Anything which is nearly spherical or globular in shape
• noun The earth; the terraqueous ball; -- usually preceded by the definite article.
• noun A round model of the world; a spherical representation of the earth or heavens; ; -- called also artificial globe.
• noun A body of troops, or of men or animals, drawn up in a circle; -- a military formation used by the Romans, answering to the modern infantry square.
• noun (Bot.) a plant of the genus Gomphrena (G. globosa), bearing round heads of variously colored flowers, which long retain color when gathered.
• noun a small, globular, locomotive organism (Volvox globator), once throught to be an animal, afterward supposed to be a colony of microscopic algæ.
• noun (Mil.) a kind of mine producing a wide crater; -- called also overcharged mine.
• noun (Bot.) a plant or flower of the genus Globularing, common in Europe. The flowers are minute and form globular heads.
• noun a form of front sight placed on target rifles.
• noun (Zoöl.) an isopod crustacean of the genus Spheroma.
• noun (Bot.) a thistlelike plant with the flowers in large globular heads (Cynara Scolymus); also, certain species of the related genus Echinops.
• noun A valve inclosed in a globular chamber.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Any spherical object
• noun The planet Earth.
• noun A spherical model of Earth or any planet.
• noun A light bulb.
• verb To become spherical

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an object with a spherical shape
• noun the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on
• noun a sphere on which a map (especially of the earth) is represented