LEVER • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Lever

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lˈɛvər/ /lˈivər/ Listen

noun

Lever n.

(Mech.) A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; used for transmitting and modifying force and motion. Specif., a bar of metal, wood, or other rigid substance, used to exert a pressure, or sustain a weight, at one point of its length, by receiving a force or power at a second, and turning at a third on a fixed point called a fulcrum. It is usually named as the first of the six mechanical powers, and is of three kinds, according as either the fulcrum F, the weight W, or the power P, respectively, is situated between the other two, as in the figures.

(Mach.)

(a)

A bar, as a capstan bar, applied to a rotatory piece to turn it.

(b)

An arm on a rock shaft, to give motion to the shaft or to obtain motion from it.

Compound lever, a machine consisting of two or more levers acting upon each other.

Lever escapement. See Escapement.

Lever jack. See Jack, n., 5.

Lever watch, a watch having a vibrating lever to connect the action of the escape wheel with that of the balance.

Universal lever, a machine formed by a combination of a lever with the wheel and axle, in such a manner as to convert the reciprocating motion of the lever into a continued rectilinear motion of some body to which the power is applied.

adjective

Lever adj. More agreeable; more pleasing. (Obs.)

To be lever than. See Had as lief, under Had.

adverb

Lever adv. Rather. (Obs.) "For lever had I die than see his deadly face."

See images of 'Lever'

Etymology of 'Lever'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Lever" Quotes from Famous Books

... have girls to deal with as well as boys—an element not to be provided for in the Belmont arrangements, and causing a little difficulty as to their proper disposition on first starting. But nothing seems to daunt Mr Wilson. Give him but a square inch for his foothold, and his moral lever will raise any given mass of ignorance, and remove any possible amount of obstruction. After a little time, and some expense, one of the railway arches near the night-factory was taken possession of, fitted up, made water-tight, and turned into a school-room ...

— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 446 - Volume 18, New Series, July 17, 1852 • Various

... there was an arrangement like a medieval rack, only that instead of having a wheel or a lever the cords were drawn by heavy weights. A man lay on it with arms and legs stretched out toward its corners so tightly that his body did not touch the underlying strut; and he had been so long in that position ...

— Caves of Terror • Talbot Mundy

... fields tilled today until the farmer becomes a co-operator. Take the shareholder to his railway, and ask him to point out to you the particular length of rail, the particular seat in the railway carriage, the particular lever in the engine that is his very own and nobody else's; and he will shun you as a madman, very wisely. And if, like Ananias and Sapphira, you try to hold back your little shop or what not from the common stock, ...

— Preface to Androcles and the Lion - On the Prospects of Christianity • George Bernard Shaw

... cracked and the fleeing man staggered drunkenly but sped on, while the convict working the lever of his Winchester with remorseless cruelty, emptied its contents after ...

— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... heavy wood, rounded and tapering. 18. Port Lincoln Wirris, or stick used for throwing at game, 2 feet. 19. Murray River Bwirri, or ditto ditto 20. War club, with a heavy knob, and pointed. 21. Port Lincoln Midla, or lever, with quartz knife attached to the end. 22. Murray ...

— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

More quotes...