Note: A trophy consisted originally of some of the armor, weapons, etc., of the defeated enemy fixed to the trunk of a tree or to a post erected on an elevated site, with an inscription, and a dedication to a divinity. The Romans often erected their trophies in the Capitol.
2. The representation of such a memorial, as on a medal; esp. (Arch.), an ornament representing a group of arms and military weapons, offensive and defensive.
3. Anything taken from an enemy and preserved as a memorial of victory, as arms, flags, standards, etc. Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears, And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars, And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars. Dryden.
4. Any evidence or memorial of victory or conquest; as, every redeemed soul is a trophy of grace.
Note: Some trophies(5) are unique, temporary possession of the same object passing to the new victors of some periodic contest in subsequent occurrences. Others are objects of little inherent worth, given by the authority sponsoring the contest to the victor. A trophy is sometimes shaped like a cup, and in such cases may be called a cup, as the America's Cup (in Yacht racing). Trophy money, a duty paid formerly in England, annually, by housekeepers, toward providing harness, drums, colors, and the like, for the militia.
TROPIC
Trop"ic, a. Etym: [Atropine + -ic.] (Chem.)
Defn: Of, pertaining to, or designating, an acid obtained from atropine and certain other alkaloids, as a white crystalline substance slightly soluble in water.
TROPIC Trop"ic, n. Etym: [F. tropique, L.tropicus of or belonging to a turn, i. e., of the sun, Gr. Trope.]
1. (Astron.)
Defn: One of the two small circles of the celestial sphere, situated on each side of the equator, at a distance of 23º 28min, and parallel to it, which the sun just reaches at its greatest declination north or south, and from which it turns again toward the equator, the northern circle being called the Tropic of Cancer, and the southern the Tropic of Capricorn, from the names of the two signs at which they touch the ecliptic.