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r turning round on an axis or a center; the motion of a body round a fixed point or line; rotation; as, the revolution of a wheel, of a top, of the earth on its axis, etc.

To move, as a curved object may, along a surface by rotation without sliding; to revolve upon an axis; to turn over and over; as, a ball or wheel rolls on the earth; a body rolls on an inclined plane. And her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls. Shak.

Rotating on an axis, or moving along a surface by rotation; turning over and over as if on an axis or a pivot; as, a rolling wheel or ball.

ts axis; rotatory; as, rotary motion. Rotary engine, steam engine in which the continuous rotation of the shaft is produced by the direct action of the steam upon rotating devices which serve as pistons, instead of being derived from a reciprocating motion, as in the ordinary engine; a steam turbine; -- called also rot…

turning, as a wheel; rotary; rotational. This high rotative velocity of the sun must cause an equatorial rise of the solar atmosphere. Siemens. Rotative engine, a steam engine in which the reciprocating motion of the piston is transformed into a continuous rotary motion, as by means of a connecting rod, a working beam…

Going in a circle; following in rotation or succession; as, rotatory assembles. Burke.

To go out by rotation or succession; to rotate. [Obs.] Z. Grey.

Rotation, as in office; succession. Holyday.

sed to express the displacement of a rigid body, which may always be made to consist of a rotation about an axis combined with a translation parallel to that axis.

Velocity of rotation about some specified axis. go for a spin take a spin, take a trip in a wheeled vehicle, usu. an automobile.

nd by the side of the way leading to sacred edifices or shrines, and which are visited in rotation, stated services being performed at each; -- called also Station of the cross. Fairholt. Station bill. (Naut.) Same as Quarter bill, under Quarter. -- Station house. (a) The house serving for the headquarters of the poli…

he person who succeeds to the previous owner. [Eng.] -- Succession of crops. (Agric.) See Rotation of crops, under Rotation.

ece, as a ring or hook, attached to another piece by a pin, in such a manner as to permit rotation about the pin as an axis.

or canal, consisting of a wheel with inclined vanes, which is turned by the current. The rotations of the wheel are recorded by clockwork.

moving body have at any instant the same velocity and direction of motion; -- opposed to rotation.

Admitting of rotation on an axis; -- sometimes applied to a pivot joint like that between the atlas and axis in the vertebral column.

The act of twirling; a rapid circular motion; a whirl or whirling; quick rotation.

The quality or power of turning; revolution; rotation. [R.] Locke. I hardly believe he hath from elder times unknown the verticity of the loadstone. Sir T. Browne.

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.