Search the Dictionary

A lever whose two arms form a right angle, or nearly a right angle, having its fulcrum at the apex of the angle. It is used in bell pulls and in changing the direction of bell wires at angles of rooms, etc., and also in machinery.

Changed by pressure so as to be no longer straight; crooked; as, a bent pin; a bent lever.

the other. It has a saddle seat and is propelled by the rider's feet acting on cranks or levers.

The hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to be lifted, or the hold which one part of a machine has upon another.

against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine.

ects the paddle boxes. -- Bridge of the nose, the upper, bony part of the nose. -- Cantalever bridge. See under Cantalever. -- Draw bridge. See Drawbridge. -- Flying bridge, a temporary bridge suspended or floating, as for the passage of armies; also, a floating structure connected by a cable with an anchor or pier…

surface, imparts variable or intermittent motion to, or receives such motion from, a rod, lever, or block brought into sliding or rolling contact with it.

A wooden lever with a movable iron hook. hear the end; -- used for canting or turning over heavy logs, etc. [U. S.] Bartlett.

r, revolving on an upright spindle, and surmounted by a drumhead with sockets for bars or levers. It is much used, especially on shipboard, for moving or raising heavy weights or exerting great power by traction upon a rope or cable, passing around the drum. It is operated either by steam power or by a number of men wa…

A cantalever, console, corbel, or modillion, which has the form of a scroll of paper.

rudder, may be effected by either of two movements, in different directions, of a single lever, etc.

f a cruciform church. -- Cross axie. (a) (Mach.) A shaft, windlass, or roller, worked by levers at opposite ends, as in the copperplate printing press. (b) A driving axle. with cranks set at an angle of 90º with each other. -- Cross bedding (Geol.), oblique lamination of horizontal beds, -- Cross bill. See in the Voc…

A bar connecting the ends of the side rods or levers of a backaction or side-lever engine.

A bar of iron with a beak, crook, or claw; a bar of iron used as a lever; a crowbar. Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight Unto my cell. Shak.

A bar of iron sharpened at one end, and used as a lever.

A lever mounted on a tripod for lifting stones, leveling up railroad ties, etc. Knight.

, generally causing lameness. James Law. Curb bit, a stiff bit having branches by which a leverage is obtained upon the jaws of horse. Knight. -- Curb pins (Horology), the pins on the regulator which restrain the hairspring. -- Curb plate (Arch.), a plate serving the purpose of a curb. -- Deck curb. See under Deck.…

Clever; sharp; shrewd; ingenious; cunning. [Colloq.]

are dead centers of the crank mechanism in which the crank C drives, or is driven by, the lever L. -- Dead color (Paint.), a color which has no gloss upon it. -- Dead coloring (Oil paint.), the layer of colors, the preparation for what is to follow. In modern painting this is usually in monochrome. -- Dead door (Shi…

Apt; fit; dexterous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [Archaic or Poetic] "The deftest way." Shak. "Deftest feats." Gay. The limping god, do deft at his new ministry. Dryden. Let me be deft and debonair. Byron.