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Webster 1913 Edition
Spiral
1.
Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it;
as, the
. spiral
curve of a watch spring2.
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.
(Geom.)
Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral.
Spiral gear
, or
Spiral wheel
(Mach.)
, 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 , 4.
Spring
, Noun.
1.
(Geom.)
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. Cf.
Helix
. 2.
Anything which has a spiral form, as a spiral shell.
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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Spiral
SPI'RAL
,Adj.
Definition 2024
spiral
spiral
See also: spirál
English
Archimedean spiral
Noun
spiral (plural spirals)
- (geometry) A curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point.
- (informal) A helix.
- A self-sustaining process with a lot of momentum involved, so it is difficult to accelerate or stop it at once.
Derived terms
terms derived from spiral (noun)
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Translations
geometry
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helix
Adjective
spiral (not comparable)
- Helical, like a spiral
Translations
helical
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Verb
spiral (third-person singular simple present spirals, present participle (US) spiraling or (UK) spiralling, simple past and past participle (US) spiraled or (UK) spiralled)
- (intransitive) To move along the path of a spiral or helix.
- The falling leaves spiralled down from the tree.
- (transitive) To cause something to spiral.
- You need to learn how to spiral a ball.
- (figuratively, intransitive) To increase continually.
- Her debts were spiralling out of control.