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, or gas engine, etc., in which the piston moves back and forth; -- in distinction from a rotary engine, in which the piston travels continuously in one direction in a circular path. -- Reciprocating motion (Mech.), motion alternately backward and forward, or up and down, as of a piston rod.

an opposite direction, or to stand or lie in an inverted position; as, the reversal of a rotating wheel; the reversal of objects by a convex lens.

either direction at will. -- Reversing gear (Mach.), gear for reversing the direction of rotation at will.

Capable of revolving; rotatory; revolving. [Obs.] Us, then, to whom the thrice three year Hath filled his revoluble orb since our arrival here, I blame not. Chapman.

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 turn or roll round on, or as on, an axis, like a wheel; to rotate, -- which is the more specific word in this sense. If the earth revolve thus, each house pear the equator must move a thousand miles an hour. I. Watts.

Making a revolution or revolutions; rotating; -- used also figuratively of time, seasons, etc., depending on the revolution of the earth. But grief returns with the revolving year. Shelley. Revolving seasons, fruitless as they pass. Cowper. Revolving firearm. See Revolver. -- Revolving light, a light or lamp in a ligh…

A gun, the inside of whose barrel is grooved with spiral channels, thus giving the ball a rotary motion and insuring greater accuracy of fire. As a military firearm it has superseded the musket.

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.

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

Same as Rotate.

The rotating part of a generator or motor.

See Rota.

Rotation, as in office; succession. Holyday.

A rotating cask or box in which small articles are smoothed or poliched by friction against each other. rumble seat, a seat in the rear of an automobile, outside the passenger cabin, which folds out from the body

Something which rotates about an axis, as a wheel, or the drum of a capstan. "An axis or cylinder having a rundle about it." Bp. Wilkins.

The rotating stone of a set of millstones.

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.

A rupture or hernia in the scrotum; scrotal hernia.