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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
rotary
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a rotary dial phone
▪ the rotary movement of the helicopter's blades
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Beat in eggs one at a time, using a rotary beater, until satiny and fluffy.
▪ Between these two displays are the rotary encoder control and four push buttons.
▪ Men's razors some in two styles, either with a foil head or with rotary heads.
▪ Not long after our purchase, the rotary engine, well, melted.
▪ Telephones used to have slower rotary dials.
▪ The Linotype machine and high-capacity rotary press produced mass circulation newspapers, which-until radio and television came along-largely replaced personal-encounter politics.
▪ There were about 45 rotary steam corn mills built before 1800.
▪ This in turn made it a simple matter to adapt Watt's engine to provide rotary motion.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rotary

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.

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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
rotary

1731, from Medieval Latin rotarius "pertaining to wheels," from Latin rota "a wheel, a potter's wheel; wheel for torture," from PIE root *ret- "to run, to turn, to roll" (cognates: Sanskrit rathah "car, chariot;" Avestan ratho; Lithuanian ratas "wheel," ritu "I roll;" Old High German rad, German Rad, Dutch rad, Old Frisian reth, Old Saxon rath, Old Irish roth, Welsh rhod "carriage wheel"). The international service club (founded by Paul P. Harris in Chicago in 1905) so called from the practice of clubs entertaining in rotation. Hence Rotarian (1911).

Wiktionary
rotary

a. Having or being capable of having rotation. n. 1 (context New England English) A traffic circle. 2 Usually with a capital initial, short for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary%20International, an international club for community service.

WordNet
rotary
  1. n. 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]

rotary
  1. adj. relating to or characterized by rotation; "rotary dial"

  2. marked by or moving in a circle [syn: circular]

Wikipedia
Rotary

Rotary may refer to:

Usage examples of "rotary".

Rotary Club about dollar devaluation, gave Diefenbaker a valid base from which to reawaken the resentment against Liberal arrogance that had been strongly felt by Canadian voters in 1957.

He broke the balls and they played straight pool and the hacendado beat him easily, walking about the table and chalking his cue with a deft rotary motion and announcing the shots in spanish.

The bacterial cilium that Behe presents as one of his cases of irreducible complexity is a whiplike rotary paddle used for propulsion, driven by an intricate molecular machine that includes an acid-powered engine, stator housing, O-rings, bushings, and a drive shaft, and is built from over 40 interacting proteins, every one of them essential.

I gave several talks in Sacramento-- including a Rotary Club speech, a speech to the physicians associated with the university ophthalmology department, and a TV interview-- to help raise funds for the Medical Center.

The atmosphere is redolent of costly herbs, which, with the well-known rotary motion of the earth, impart density and spacefulness to our spheral persons: this is the philosophy of our presence.

In general the white spots were high-pressure cells that had risen from the depths and were converting their heat to rotary motion, which motion was greedily sucked at by the zonal jets.

Three modes of applying this operation by the mechanical apparatus are in use, effected by the Direct, the Rotary, and the Revolving Kneader.

Accelerating west for a quarter of a mile, Sophie banked to the right around a wide rotary.

The officials, waiting to see Ernst were from the Bnai Brith, Kiwanis, and the Rotary Club.

The Steyr SSG-70 bolt-action rifle was undamaged, but the rotary clip in the breech was exhausted, and there were no more mags in his ammo pouch.

He had searched for sniper rifles among the weaponry in the Quonset hut, and near a Barrett 1-A had found a case of Steyr longblasters and boxes of ammo, along with the rotary mag they used.

Satisfied for the moment, Ryan stuffed some more rotary clips for the Steyr into his jacket pocket and filled the ammo pouch on his belt with clips for the SIG-Sauer.

Although his buttondown Madison Avenue, Rotary Club-loving parents had named him Ralph, he liked to be called Bright Sunshiny Ralph.

Each car, without uncoupling, moved into a rotary dumper which then inverted, letting the coal fall out onto heavy grates.

There were five stalls on the right-hand side and an ancient gasoline tractor parked on the left along with various attachments: a plow, a disker, a small utility trailer, and an old rotary hay mower.