collet

[ kol-it ]

noun
  1. a collar or enclosing band.

  2. the enclosing rim within which a jewel is set.

  1. a slotted cylindrical clamp inserted tightly into the tapered interior of a sleeve or chuck on a lathe to hold a cylindrical piece of work.

  2. Horology. the tiny collar that supports the inner terminal of a hairspring.

verb (used with object),col·let·ed, col·let·ing.
  1. to set (a gem or other stone) in a collet.

Origin of collet

1
1520–30; <French, equivalent to col neck (<Latin collum) + -et-et

Words Nearby collet

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How to use collet in a sentence

  • On the collet (culasse) 24 other faces are made round a small table, which converts the culasse into a truncated pyramid.

  • He immediately hastened to collet, assembled all the troops he could muster, and put himself on the track of the Camisards.

    The Huguenots in France | Samuel Smiles.

British Dictionary definitions for collet

collet

/ (ˈkɒlɪt) /


noun
  1. (in a jewellery setting) a band or coronet-shaped claw that holds an individual stone

  2. mechanical engineering an externally tapered sleeve made in two or more segments and used to grip a shaft passed through its centre when the sleeve is compressed by being inserted in a tapered hole

  1. horology a small collar that supports the inner end of the hairspring

verb
  1. (tr) jewellery to mount in a collet

Origin of collet

1
C16: from Old French: a little collar, from col neckband, neck, from Latin collum neck

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012