Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Centrifugal \Cen*trif"u*gal\, a. [L. centrum center + fugere to flee.]
Tending, or causing, to recede from the center.
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(Bot.)
Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower cluster.
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Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the fruit, as some embryos.
Centrifugal force (Mech.), a force whose direction is from a center.
Note: When a body moves in a circle with uniform velocity, a force must act on the body to keep it in the circle without change of velocity. The direction of this force is towards the center of the circle. If this force is applied by means of a string to the body, the string will be in a state of tension. To a person holding the other end of the string, this tension will appear to be directed toward the body as if the body had a tendency to move away from the center of the circle which it is describing. Hence this latter force is often called centrifugal force. The force which really acts on the body being directed towards the center of the circle is called centripetal force, and in some popular treatises the centripetal and centrifugal forces are described as opposing and balancing each other. But they are merely the different aspects of the same stress.
--Clerk Maxwell.Centrifugal impression (Physiol.), an impression (motor) sent from a nerve center outwards to a muscle or muscles by which motion is produced.
Centrifugal machine, A machine for expelling water or other fluids from moist substances, or for separating liquids of different densities by centrifugal action; a whirling table.
Centrifugal pump, a machine in which water or other fluid is lifted and discharged through a pipe by the energy imparted by a wheel or blades revolving in a fixed case. Some of the largest and most powerful pumps are of this kind.
Centrifugal \Cen*trif"u*gal\, n. A centrifugal machine.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1690s, with adjectival suffix -al (1) + Modern Latin centrifugus, 1687, coined by Sir Isaac Newton (who wrote in Latin) in "Principia" (which is written in Latin), from Latin centri- alternative comb. form of centrum "center" (see center (n.)) + fugere "to flee" (see fugitive (adj.)). Centrifugal force is Newton's vis centrifuga. \n
Wiktionary
a. 1 Tending, or causing, to recede from the center. 2 (context botany English) Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower cluster. 3 (context botany English) Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the fruit, as some embryos.
WordNet
adj. tending to move away from a center; "centrifugal force" [ant: centripetal]
tending away from centralization, as of authority; "the division of Europe into warring blocs produces ever-increasing centrifugal stress"
conveying information to the muscles from the CNS; "motor nerves" [syn: motor(a)]
Wikipedia
Centrifugal (a key concept in rotating systems) may refer to:
- Centrifugal casting (industrial), Centrifugal casting (silversmithing), and Spin casting (centrifugal rubber mold casting), forms of centrifigual casting
- Centrifugal clutch
- Centrifugal compressor
- Centrifugal evaporator
- Centrifugal extractor
- Centrifugal fan
- Centrifugal force
- Centrifugal force (rotating reference frame)
- Centrifugal governor
- Centrifugal gun
- Centrifugal micro-fluidic biochip
- Centrifugal pump
- Centrifugal railway
- Centrifugal switch
- Centrifugal-type supercharger
- Centrifugal water–oil separator
- Centrifugation
- Reactive centrifugal force
Usage examples of "centrifugal".
Now, a plywood ramp had been erected so that the curved brick wall itself could be used as part of the track, the minibikes rocketing by so fast that their centrifugal force held them to the wall as they used it as a lane to pass each other.
Then he had a game of centrifugal squash with a cultural deputy from the Department of Extrasystem Concerns.
Although the Delta area is located in a rotating section of the environment where centrifugal force stimulates point seven Earthside gravity, experienced offworlders still strap in to sleep in case of a malfunction.
Her auburn hair was upswept and sprayed firmly into place, as a safeguard against the tousling it might otherwise undergo from accelerative and centrifugal fluctuations while VJO changed orbits.
Earthward, because the centrifugal pull was stronger than gravity there at the fringe of the skyweb.
You know all too well the effect of sharp turns at high speed and the results of the centrifugal force.
He has so much centrifugal force already that he has very little weight.
Nancy threw her door open to jump, the centrifugal force of the turn adding momentum to her movement.
Nancy threw her own door open and moved instinctively to jump, the centrifugal force of the turn adding momentum to her movement.
Even under a tent in the rain, there was a centrifugal pattern to the steps, the feints, the mental concentration.
Slowly the ship turned about her axes, centrifugal forces giving an off-center surrogate of gravity.
For if, more often than not, the music of the spheres resembled a howl of celestial feedback, that was because harmony was under eternal besiegement by evil centrifugal forces.
While centrifugal force held them in that attitude, and the tortured gyroscope strove to keep the machine upright, the tires gave up the battle and the car executed a sickening double-eight.
The centrifugal force rolled Craig over and out over the side of the vehicle.
These modified, Delux 30 Chevrolet pickups really packed a wallop he thought: Venola forged blower pistons, Crower rods, magnefluxed crankshaft, Paxton centrifugal supercharger forced induction system I A legacy of Fritz.