Definition of "period"

Philip Miles, defending, said: "This was a single instance, there was no allegation of continuing behaviour over a long period of time."

2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian

With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

‘You know, a period? The black spot at the end of a sentence — what do you call them over there?’

2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 299

My sufferings, physical and mental, are more than I can bear, and when such small arrangements as I have to make for your future well-being are completed it is my intention to put a period to them.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

Why now let me die, for I haue liu'd long enough : This is the period of my ambition : O this bleſſed houre.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii], page 58, column 1

All comes to one period, whether man make an end of himſelfe, or whether he endure-it […].

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 203

[…] and yet this is but the ἀρχή ὠδίνων, the Beginning of those evils which shall never End till eternity hath a period […]

a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, “Advent Sunday Dooms-Day Book: Or, Christ’s Advent to Judgement”, in Ἐνιαυτος: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays Of the Year, London: R. Norton, published 1673, page 8

So ſpake th’ Archangel Michael, then paus’d, / As at the Worlds great period ; and our Sire / Replete with joy and wonder thus repli’d.

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 1537–1539

Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.

1641, Ben Jonson, Timber

that such iron moulds as these shall have autority to knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men, whose misfortune it is to have understanding.

1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.]

In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins out Rousseau's eloquence […]

1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792

A very superior gentleman, Mr. Kenge. Truly eloquent indeed. Some of his periods quite majestic!

1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853

He writhed for twenty minutes under the flowery and eulogistic periods of the president, and rose himself in the state of confused indignation which the Briton feels when he is publicly approved.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

The Death of Patroclus was the most eminent Period; and consequently the most proper Time for such Games.

1720, Alexander Pope, translating Homer, Iliad, Book IV (note 125)

Polyclonal antibodies were prepared against the period gene product, which influences biological rhythms in D. melanogaster, by using small synthetic peptides from the per sequence as immunogens.

1988 April 1, “Antibodies to the period gene product of drosophila reveal diverse tissue distribution and rhythmic changes in the visual system”, in Neuron, volume 1, number 2, page 141

Symbol: Dmel\per / Species: D. melanogaster / Name: period

2009 November 20, “Gene Dmel\per”, in FlyBase‎ (Gene Report (database record)), The FlyBase Consortium, retrieved 7 December 2009

As thus all gazed on hir, so she glaunced hir lookes on all, surueying them as curiously, as they noted hir exactly, but at last she set downe her period on the face of Alexis […]

1590, Robert Greene, “The Shepheards Tale”, in Greenes Mourning Garment‎, London: Thomas Newman, page 17

And if my death might make this island happy,And prove the period of their tyranny,I would expend it with all willingness:

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]

When Loue thus in his Center ends,Desire and Hope, his inward friendsAre shaken off: while Doubt and Griefe,The weakest giuers of reliefe,Stand in his councell as the chiefe:And now he to his period brought,From Loue becomes some other thought.

1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love”, in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems‎, London: Henry Seile, page 100

Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untillThe last sand make his Period.

1651, William Cartwright, The Ordinary‎, London: Humphrey Moseley, act III, scene 5, page 51

As the guests arrived — there were about a hundred, a majority in period attire — I began to feel out of place in my beige summer suit, white shirt, and red necktie. Then I got over it. I certainly didn't suffer from Confederate-uniform envy.

2004, Mark Singer, Somewhere in America, Houghton Mifflin, page 70

For you may period upon this, that where there is the most pity for others, there is the greatest misery in the party pitied.

1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political