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etal, or slip of wood, often cut into some fanciful form, and placed upon a perpendicular axis around which it moves freely. Aye undiscreet, and changing as a vane. Chaucer.

A condition of the uterus in which its axis is deflected from its normal position without being bent upon itself. See Anteversion, and Retroversion.

An axis; hinge; a turning point. E. Waterhouse.

ea-pens, but have a long rodlike rhachis inclosing a slender, round or square, calcareous axis. The polyps are arranged in transverse rows or clusters along each side of the rhachis.

of a spiral scroll of plate, rod, or wire, extended or extensible in the direction of the axis of the coil, in which direction its elastic force is exerted and employed.

lection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices.

A line, within a rotating fluid, whose tangent at every point is the instantaneous axis of rotation as that point of the fluid.

A ring-shaped mass of moving fluid which, by virtue of its motion of rotation around an axis disposed in circular form, attains a more or less distinct separation from the surrounding medium and has many of the properties of a solid.

from one side to the other; to vacillate; to move the manner of a rotating disk when the axis of rotation is inclined to that of the disk; -- said of a turning or whirling body; as, a top wabbles; a buzz saw wabbles. wobble.

A circular frame turning about an axis; a rotating disk, whether solid, or a frame composed of an outer rim, spokes or radii, and a central hub or nave, in which is inserted the axle, -- used for supporting and conveying vehicles, in machinery, and for various purposes; as, the wheel of a wagon, of a locomotive, of a m…

A child's toy, spun or whirled around like a wheel upon an axis, or like a top. Johnson.

machine for raising weights, consisting of a horizontal cylinder or roller moving on its axis, and turned by a crank, lever, or similar means, so as to wind up a rope or chain attached to the weight. In vessels the windlass is often used instead of the capstan for raising the anchor. It is usually set upon the forecas…

One of the forked holders for supporting the telescope of a leveling instrument, or the axis of a theodolite; a wye.

red snapper (Lutianus aya); also, sometimes, one of certain other allied species, as L. caxis.

rom the zenith, but on opposite sides of it. It turns both on a vertical and a horizontal axis, is provided with a graduated vertical semicircle, and a level for setting it to a given zenith distance, and with a micrometer for measuring the difference of the zenith distances of the two stars.

; the portion of a surface of revolution included between two planes perpendicular to the axis. Davies & Peck (Math. Dict.)