eclipse

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

• noun The partial or complete obscuring, relative to a designated observer, of one celestial body by another.
• noun The period of time during which such an obscuration occurs.
• noun A temporary or permanent dimming or cutting off of light.
• noun A fall into obscurity or disuse; a decline.
• noun A disgraceful or humiliating end; a downfall.
• transitive verb To cause an eclipse of.
• transitive verb To obscure; darken.
• transitive verb To obscure or diminish in importance, fame, or reputation.
• transitive verb To surpass; outshine.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To obscure by an eclipse; cause the obscuration of; darken or hide, as a heavenly body: as, the moon eclipses the sun.
• To overshadow; throw in the shade; obscure; hence, to surpass or excel.
• To suffer an eclipse.
• noun In astronomy, an interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other heavenly body, by the intervention of another heavenly body either between it and the eye or between it and the source of its illumination.
• noun Figuratively, any state of obscuration; an overshadowing; a transition from brightness, clearness, or animation to the opposite state: as, his glory has suffered an eclipse.

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

• transitive verb To cause the obscuration of; to darken or hide; -- said of a heavenly body.
• transitive verb To obscure, darken, or extinguish the beauty, luster, honor, etc., of; to sully; to cloud; to throw into the shade by surpassing.
• intransitive verb To suffer an eclipse.
• noun (Astron.) An interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention of some other body, either between it and the eye, or between the luminous body and that illuminated by it. A lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon coming between the sun and the observer. A satellite is eclipsed by entering the shadow of its primary. The obscuration of a planet or star by the moon or a planet, though of the nature of an eclipse, is called an occultation. The eclipse of a small portion of the sun by Mercury or Venus is called a transit of the planet.
• noun The loss, usually temporary or partial, of light, brilliancy, luster, honor, consciousness, etc.; obscuration; gloom; darkness.
• noun (Astron.) See under Annular.
• noun See under Cycle.

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

• noun An astronomical alignment in which a planetary object (for example, the Moon) comes between the Sun and another planetary object (for example, the Earth), resulting in a shadow being cast by the middle object onto the other object.
• noun A seasonal state of plumage in some birds, notably ducks, adopted temporarily after the breeding season and characterised by a dull and scruffy appearance.
• noun Obscurity, decline, downfall
• verb transitive Of astronomical bodies, to cause an eclipse.
• verb transitive To overshadow; to be better or more noticeable than.
• verb to undergo eclipsis

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

• verb cause an eclipse of (a celestial body) by intervention
• verb be greater in significance than
• noun one celestial body obscures another