orb

Etymology 1

From Middle English orbe, from Old French orbe, from Latin orbis (“circle, orb”). Compare orbit.

noun

1. A spherical body; a sphere, especially one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star
2. One of the azure transparent spheres conceived by the ancients to be enclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions
3. (architecture) A structural motif or finial in the shape of a sphere
4. An orbit of an heavenly body
5. (rare) The time period of an orbit
   Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd / By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course / Had circl'd his full Orbe, the birth mature / Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons. 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V
6. (poetic) The eye, seen as a luminous and spherical entity
7. (poetic) Any revolving circular body, such as a wheel
8. (rare) A sphere of action.
   By what fatality the orb of my genius […] acts upon these men like the moon upon a certain description of patients, it would be irksome to inquire 1815, William Wordsworth, Essay, Supplementary to the Preface
9. A globus cruciger; a ceremonial sphere used to represent royal or imperial power
10. A translucent sphere appearing in flash photography (Orb (optics))
11. (military) A body of soldiers drawn up in a circle, as for defence, especially infantry to repel cavalry.

verb

1. (poetic, transitive) To form into an orb or circle.
   a full-orbed sun 1842, James Russell Lowell, sonnet
2. (poetic, intransitive) To become round like an orb.
3. (poetic, transitive) To encircle; to surround; to enclose.
   The wheels were orbed with gold. 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses

Etymology 2

From Old French orb (“blind”), from Latin orbus (“destitute”).

noun

1. (architecture) A blank window or panel.
   small blank windows or panels, for in later times such panels were called orbs, blind windows 1845, Robert Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral