Search the Dictionary

The end of a shaft or arbor which rests and turns in a support; as, the pivot of an arbor in a watch.

Of or pertaining to a pivot or turning point; belonging to, or constituting, a pivot; of the nature of a pivot; as, the pivotalopportunity of a career; the pivotal position in a battle.

the first vertebra or atlas, so as to form the odontoid process or peg which serves as a pivot for the atlas and head to turn upon.

y the fall or rise of a ball floating in water at the end of a lever. -- Ball gudgeon, a pivot of a spherical form, which permits lateral deflection of the arbor or shaft, while retaining the pivot in its socket. Knight. -- Ball lever, the lever used in a ball cock. -- Ball of the eye, the eye itself, as distinguish…

A chain in which the alternate links are broad blocks connected by thin side links pivoted to the ends of the blocks, used with sprocket wheels to transmit power, as in a bicycle.

sometimes with a hole bored through its length by which it may be placed on a spindle or pivot. It is used to hold yarn or thread, as in spinning or warping machines, looms, sewing machines, etc.

rubbers 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.

ng or enlarging holes in metal; sometimes made smooth or without edges, as for burnishing pivot holes in watches; a reamer. The broach for gun barrels is commonly square and without taper.

of metal or wood inserted in a plate or other part of machinery to receive the wear of a pivot or arbor. Knight.

or linings, into holes or places where wear is to be received, or friction diminished, as pivot holes, etc.

The bridge piece which affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch. Knight. Ball cock. See under Ball. -- Chaparral cock. See under Chaparral. -- Cock and bull story, an extravagant, boastful story; a canard. -- Cock of the plains (Zoöl.) See Sage cock. -- Cock of the rock (Zoöl.), a South Amer…

The rounded or pointed top of a grinding mill spindle, forming a pivot on which the stone is balanced.

ons upon the carth's surface by means of a magnetized bar or needle turning freely upon a pivot and pinting in a northerly and southerly direction. He that firat discovered the use of the compass did more for the supplying and increase of useful commodities than those who built workhouses. Locke.

tween two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock. Raymond. Contact level, a delicate level so pivoted as to tilt when two parts of a measuring apparatus come into contact with each other; -- used in precise determinations of lengths and in the accurate graduation of instruments.

A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinginng on pivots; hence, the place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence; as, a cradle of crime; the cradle of liberty. The cradle that received thee at thy birth. Cowper. No sooner was I crept out of my cradle B…

Turning on pivots at the top and bottom; -- said of a door.

de of feathers, paper, silk, etc., and often mounted on sticks all turning about the same pivot, so as when opened to radiate from the center and assume the figure of a section of a circle.

n not be distilled unchanged; -- distinguished from volatile or essential oils. -- Fixed pivot (Mil.), the fixed point about which any line of troops wheels. -- Fixed stars (Astron.), such stars as always retain nearly the same apparent position and distance with respect to each other, thus distinguished from planets…

the body can turn on an axis through a diameter of the ring, while the ring itself is so pivoted to its support that it can turn about a diameter at right angles to the first. Gimbal joint (Mach.), a universal joint embodying the principle of the gimbal. -- Gimbal ring, a single gimbal, as that by which the cockeye o…

stened in the end of a wooden shaft or axle, on which it turns; formerly, any journal, or pivot, or bearing, as the pintle and eye of a hinge, but esp. the end journal of a horizontal.