Rotary

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Rotary \Ro"ta*ry\, a. [L. rota a wheel. See {Roll}, v., and cf.
     {barouche}, {Rodomontade}, {Rou['e]}, {Round}, a., {Rowel}.]
     Turning, as a wheel on its axis; pertaining to, or
     resembling, the motion of a wheel on its axis; rotatory; as,
     rotary motion.
     [1913 Webster]


  
     {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
        {rotatory engine}.
  
     {Rotary pump}, a pump in which the fluid is impelled by
        rotating devices which take the place of reciprocating
        buckets or pistons.
  
     {Rotary shears}, shears, as for cloth, metal, etc., in which
        revolving sharp-edged or sharp-cornered wheels do the
        cutting.
  
     {Rotary valve}, a valve acting by continuous or partial
        rotation, as in the four-way cock.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  rotary
       adj 1: relating to or characterized by rotation; "rotary dial"
       2: marked by or moving in a circle [syn: {circular}]
       n 1: a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a
            central island; "the accident blocked all traffic at the
            rotary" [syn: {traffic circle}, {circle}, {roundabout}]
       2: electrical converter consisting of a synchronous machine
          that converts alternating to direct current or vice versa
          [syn: {synchronous converter}, {rotary converter}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  112 Moby Thesaurus words for "rotary":
     O-shaped, alternate, ambagious, ascending, axial, back,
     back-flowing, backhanded, backward, beating, carrefour, circling,
     circuitous, circular, circumgyratory, circumvolutory, cloverleaf,
     crossing, crosspoint, crossroad, crosswalk, crossway, cyclic,
     cyclonic, descending, deviating, deviative, devious, digressive,
     discursive, down-trending, downward, drifting, epochal, even,
     every other, excursive, flowing, fluent, flying, flyover, going,
     grade crossing, gulfy, gyral, gyrational, gyratory, gyrostatic,
     helical, indirect, intercrossing, intermittent, intersection,
     isochronal, level crossing, meandering, measured, metronomic,
     mounting, oblique, orbital, oscillatory, out-of-the-way,
     overcrossing, overpass, passing, periodical, plunging, progressive,
     pulsing, reciprocal, recurrent, recurring, reflowing, refluent,
     regressive, retrogressive, rhythmic, rising, rotational, rotatory,
     round, roundabout, running, rushing, seasonal, serial, sideward,
     sinking, soaring, spiral, steady, streaming, swirly, tornadic,
     traffic circle, trochilic, undercrossing, undulant, undulatory,
     up-trending, upward, vertiginous, viaduct, vortical, wavelike,
     wheeling, whirlabout, whirligig, whirlwindish, whirlwindy,
     whirly