precession of the equinoxes

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precession of the equinoxes (plural precessions of the equinoxes)

1. The slow westward shift of the equinoxes along the plane of the ecliptic, resulting from precession of the earth's axis of rotation, and causing the equinoxes to occur earlier each year.
   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 29:

     Some three thousand years ago (owing to the Precession of the Equinoxes) that star at the winter solstice did not stand at midnight where you now see it, but almost exactly ON the meridian line.