The Collaborative International Dictionary
Triple \Tri"ple\, a. [L. triplus; tri- (see Tri-) + -plus, as in duplus double: cf. F. triple. See Double, and cf. Treble.]
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Consisting of three united; multiplied by three; threefold; as, a triple knot; a triple tie.
By thy triple shape as thou art seen.
--Dryden. Three times repeated; treble. See Treble.
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One of three; third. [Obs.]
--Shak.Triple crown, the crown, or tiara, of the pope. See Tiara, 2.
Triple-expansion steam engine, a compound steam engine in which the same steam performs work in three cylinders successively.
Triple measure (Mus.), a measure of tree beats of which first only is accented.
Triple ratio (Math.), a ratio which is equal to 3.
Triple salt (Chem.), a salt containing three distinct basic atoms as radicals; thus, microcosmic salt is a triple salt.
Triple star (Astron.), a system of three stars in close proximity.
Triple time (Mus.), that time in which each measure is divided into three equal parts.
Triple valve, in an automatic air brake for railroad cars, the valve under each car, by means of which the brake is controlled by a change of pressure in the air pipe leading from the locomotive.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context star English) Three stars which form a stellar system, such that they orbit the point of equilibrium of their gravitational fields; a trinary star. 2 (context star English) Three stars that appear to be one when seen with the naked eye, either because they orbit one another (trinary stars) or happen to be in the same line of sight even though they are separated by a great distance.
Usage examples of "triple star".
Together, they took themselves into hyperspace and fled the triple star system that had once held the secret promise of Zonama Sekot.
They were a true triple star, or more exactly, a pair-and-a-half, all formed from distant segments of the same cloud and all influencing one another gravitationally, to differing degrees.
Several years before the discovery, he had presented a rather daring paper at Pretoria stating his belief that in ages past epochal changes were caused by Luyten 726 being a triple star system.
Three beautiful worlds in a triple star system, and back from barbarism in recent centuries.
The five Home Planets and their triple star, Asterious, were surrounded by a nearly impregnable sphere of mighty asteroid shoals and blazing ramparts of drift, swarms of neutron stars, celestial debris, free atoms, and cosmic deserts-all of it swept by treacherous gravity storms and particle avalanches.