مُعَقِّبٌ

Coming after, or near after, another thing. (O.) See عَقِيبٌ.

It is said that it is applied as an epithet to an angel; that one says مَلَكَ مُعَقِّبٌ [meaning An angel that follows another]; and مَلَايءِكَةٌ مُعَقِّبَةٌ; and that مُعَقِّبَاتٌ is a plural plural (O.) المُعَقِّبَاتُ means The angels of the night and the day; (S, O, K;) because they succeed one another by turns; and the feminine form is used because of the frequency of their doing so, in like manner as it is in the words نَسَّابَةٌ and عَلَّامَةٌ: (S, O:) the angles called الحَفَظَةُ [plural of حَافِظٌ, q. v.]: so in the Qur'an, 13:12: in which some of the Arabs of the desert read مَعَاقِيبُ: (TA:) this [may be an anomalous plural of عَقِيبٌ, like as مَهَاجِينُ is of هَجِينٌ, or it] is plural of مُعَقِّبٌ or of مُعَقِّبَةٌ, the ى being to compensate for the suppression of one of the two ق. (Bd.)

المُعَقِّبَاتُ also signifies The she-camels that stand behind those that are pressing towards the wateringtrough, or tank; so that when one she-camel goes away, another comes in her place. (S, O, K.)

And The ejaculations of سُبْحَانَ اللّٰهِ, which follow one another, (O, K,) repeated at the end of the ordinary prayer, thirty-three in number, and which are followed by اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ thirty-three times, and اَللّٰهُ أَكْبَرْ thirty-four times. (O.)

And مُعَقِّبٌ signifies also One who makes repeatedly warring, or warring and plundering, expeditions; and who journeys repeatedly, and does not stay with his family after his return. (TA.)

And One who seeks after a thing repeatedly, striving, or exerting himself: (S, O:) one who follows after a thing that is his due, demanding restitution of it: or one who follows close after a man, for something that is his due: one who seeks to recover his right, or due: and one who, being despoiled of all his property in a hostile attack, makes a hostile attack upon him from whom he has thus suffered, and endeavours to recover his property. (TA.) Lebeed says, describing a [wild] he-ass and his female,

حَتَّى تَهَجَّرَ بِالرَّوَاحِ وَهَاجَهَا

طَلَبَ المُعَقِّبِ حَقَّهُ المُظْلُومُ

(S, O, but in the latter فِى الرَّوَاحِ,) i. e. [Until he went along in the midday heat, (بالرواح or فى الرواح being redundant,)] and drove her on [by a pursuit] like the seeking of him who is making repeated efforts, having been wronged, to obtain his due: (O:) المظلوم is an epithet qualifying المعقّب, and is in the nom. case agreeable with the meaning, (S, O,) because it is put after its proper place; (O;) and المعقّب is literally in the gen. case, but as to the meaning is an agent: (S, O: *) or, according to some, المعقّب [here] signifies the debtor who puts off the payment of his debt; so that المظلوم is an agent and المعقّب is an objective complement: (S:) or, as some say, المعقّب signifies he who demands the payment of a debt and repeats his demand thereof. (TA.)

Also Any one returning [apparently to the doing of a thing]. (O.)