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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fusee

Fusee \Fu*see"\, n. [See 2d Fusil, and cf. Fuse, n.]

  1. A flintlock gun. See 2d Fusil. [Obs.]

  2. A fuse. See Fuse, n.

    1. A friction match for smokers' use having a bulbous head which when ignited is not easily blown out even in a gale of wind.

    2. A kind of match made of paper impregnated with niter and having the usual igniting tip.

  3. A signal device, usually cylindrical, consisting of a tube filled with a composition which burns with a bright colored light for a definite time. It is used principally for the protection of trains or road vehicles, indicating an obstruction or accident ahead. Also called a flare or railroad flare.

Fusee

Fusee \Fu*see"\, n. [Etymol. uncertain.] The track of a buck.
--Ainsworth.

Fusee

Fusee \Fu*see"\, n. [F. fus['e]e a spindleful, fusee, LL. fusata, fr. fusare to use a spindle, L. fusus spindle.]

  1. The cone or conical wheel of a watch or clock, designed to equalize the power of the mainspring by having the chain from the barrel which contains the spring wind in a spiral groove on the surface of the cone in such a manner that the diameter of the cone at the point where the chain acts may correspond with the degree of tension of the spring.

  2. A similar wheel used in other machinery.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fusee

also fuzee, type of light musket, 1660s, from pronunciation of French fusil (see fusilier). As the name of a type of match used in lighting cigars and pipes by 1832, from fusee as a variant of fuse (n.).

Wiktionary
fusee

Etymology 1 n. 1 A conical, grooved pulley in early clocks. 2 A large friction match. 3 A fuse for an explosive. 4 (context US English) A colored flare used as a warning on the railroad 5 A fusil, or flintlock musket. Etymology 2

n. The track of a buck.

WordNet
fusee
  1. n. a spirally grooved spindle in a clock that counteracts the diminishing power of the uncoiling mainspring [syn: fusee drive]

  2. a colored flare used as a warning signal by trucks and trains [syn: fuzee]

  3. a friction match with a large head that will stay alight in the wind [syn: fuzee]

  4. any igniter that is used to initiate the burning of a propellant [syn: fuse, fuze, fuzee, primer, priming]

Wikipedia
Fusee (horology)

Used in antique spring-powered mechanical watches and clocks, a fusee is a cone-shaped pulley with a helical groove around it, wound with a cord or chain which is attached to the mainspring barrel. Fusees were used from the 15th century to the early 20th century to improve timekeeping by equalizing the uneven pull of the mainspring as it ran down. Gawaine Baillie stated of the fusee, "Perhaps no problem in mechanics has ever been solved so simply and so perfectly."

Fusee

Fusee or fusée may refer to:

  • Fusee (horology), a component of a clock
  • Flare, a pyrotechnic device sometimes called a Fusee
  • Fusee, an old word for " flintlock, rifle"

Usage examples of "fusee".

The bronze man planted the fusee atop a boulder, illuminating the sea for hundreds of feet in all directions.

He did not follow them himself until he had picked up and tossed a fusee into the fire.

The fusee flared and spat and spurted, and immediately it seemed to Fevrier—so short an interval of time was there—that the country-side was alive with the hum of a stirring camp, and the rattle of harness-chains, as horses were yoked to guns.

All this while, I knew not what was the matter, but rousing immediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be thrust in, and resolved with three fusees we had on board to land and assist our men.

Our men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusees with them.

Our brave commander, without asking anybody to follow him, gallops up close to them, and with his fusee knocks one of them off his horse, killed the second with his pistol, and the third ran away.

From the engine the fusee looked like a pink moon perched between the rails.

Some few fusees [rifles] I observe among them, notwithstanding they live by the bow and arrow.

Immediately after, 80 or 90 Indian men-all armed with fusees and bows and arrows-came out of a wood on the opposite bank, about a quarter of a mile below us.

If they aren't there, if they haven't seen the fusees and the train isn't stopping, you must light another flare and throw it through the window into the cab.

Though as a styptic, it has now gone out of use, as tinder it is still an article of commerce and in Northern Europe has been much used by smokers, manufactured also into fusees, and used to be found here in tobacconists' shops under the name of Amadou or German tinder.