Spiral
Spiral , adjective
[Compare French spiral. See Spire a winding line.]
1.
Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it; as, the spiral curve of a watch spring.
2.
Winding round a cylinder or imaginary axis, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like the thread of a screw; helical.
3.
(Geometry) Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral.
Collocations (5)
Spiral gear or Spiral wheel (Machinery) , a gear resembling in general a spur gear, but having its teeth cut at an angle with its axis, or so that they form small portions of screws or spirals.
Spiral gearing , a kind of gearing sometimes used in light machinery, in which spiral gears, instead of bevel gears, are used to transmit motion between shafts that are not parallel.
Spiral operculum , an operculum whih has spiral lines of growth.
Spiral shell , any shell in which the whorls form a spiral or helix.
Spiral spring , See the Note under Spring, n., 4.
Spiral , noun
[Compare French spirale. See Spiral, a.]
1.
(Geometry) A plane curve, not reentrant, described by a point, called the generatrix, moving along a straight line according to a mathematical law, while the line is revolving about a fixed point called the pole. Compare Helix.
2.
Anything which has a spiral form, as a spiral shell.
Collocations (2)
Equiangular spiral , a plane curve which cuts all its generatrices at the same angle. Same as Logarithmic spiral, under Logarithmic.
Spiral of Archimedes , a spiral the law of which is that the generatrix moves uniformly along the revolving line, which also moves uniformly.