WordNet
n. any tree of the genus Pterocarya; fruit is a small winged nutlet; Caucasus to southeastern Asia [syn: wing nut]
a threaded nut with winglike projections for thumb and forefinger leverage in turning [syn: wing nut, wing screw, butterfly nut, thumbnut]
Usage examples of "wing-nut".
The halter strap buckled tightly at Vanessa's nape the girl then began twisting the wing-nuts and slowly the two wooden rods were moved apart.
Quiss was led by the dwarfish scullions, through the banked ranges, past gleaming tubs, boiling vats, open fires and grills, past rows of massive, wing-nutted pressure cookers guarded by blast screens, under huge n-shaped pipes, bubbling and gurgling and leaking steam, and over the dainty, counter-sunk tracks of a narrow-gauge railway until eventually he saw a wall ahead, and was led up a rickety wooden staircase to a narrow gantry, then stopped at a small wooden door set into the wall.