Search the Dictionary

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

turning, rolling, or whirling round.

esp., turning the plane of polarization of luminous rays toward the right hand; as, dextrorotatory crystals, sugars, etc. Cf. Levorotatory.

Same as Levorotatory. Cf. Dextrorotatory.

ds the left; levogyrate, as levulose, left handed quartz crystals, etc. [Written also lævorotatory.]

Same as Dextrorotatory.

See Dextrotatory.

level having a short telescope (hence its name) rigidly fixed to a table capable only of rotatory movement in a horizontal plane. The telescope is usually an inverting one. It is sometimes called the Troughton level, from the name of the inventor, and a variety improved by one Gavatt is known as the Gavatt level.…

A rotatory cylinder, covered with wire teeth or teasels, for teaseling woolen cloth. Gig machine, Gigging machine, Gig mill, or Napping machine. See Gig, 4. -- Gig saw. See Jig saw.

Not rotatory; passing from one point to another by a movement other than rotation; -- said of the movement of parts of a liquid or yielding mass. Sir W. Thomson.

A bar, as a capstan bar, applied to a rotatory piece to turn it.

Pertaining to, or toward, the left; as, levorotatory.

easant sour taste. It occurs in many fruits, as in green apples, currants, etc. It is levorotatory or dextrorotatory according to the temperature and concentration. An artificial variety is a derivative of succinic acid, but has no action on polarized light, and thus malic acid is a remarkable case of physical isomeris…

Turning around; rotatory; revolving; as, a peristrephic painting (of a panorama).

Rotatory; circuitous. [R.]

oxidation. It is a sour white crystalline substance, consisting of a combination of dextrorotatory and levorotatory tartaric acids. Gregory.

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.

as a wheel on its axis; pertaining to, or resembling, the motion of a wheel on its 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 rec…

extracted from squill as a colorless amorphous substance; -- so called because it is levorotatory.

for converting reciprocating motion, as that of the working beam of a steam engine, into rotatory motion. It consists of a toothed wheel (called the sun wheel), firmly secured to the shaft it is desired to drive, and another wheel (called the planet wheel) secured to the end of a connecting rod. By the motion of the c…