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ball cock

or ball·cock

noun
  1. a device for regulating the supply of water in a tank, cistern, or the like, consisting essentially of a valve connected to a hollow floating ball which by its rise or fall shuts or opens the valve.
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Origin of ball cock

First recorded in 1780–90
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ball cock

Historical Examples

  • And Oswald could not prevent his fiddling with the pipes and the ball-cock a little.

    New Treasure Seekers

    E. (Edith) Nesbit

  • It should have a large evaporating vessel, with a ball-cock to supply it.

  • In the larger sizes the tank is automatically refilled from a water service through a ball-cock.

  • This cistern is fitted with a ball-cock, by which arrangement the liquid can be drawn off by a system of wooden pipes as required.

  • A tank situated in the roof, and fed from the main by a ball-cock valve, communicates with A through the siphon pipe S.

    How it Works

    Archibald Williams

British Dictionary definitions for ball cock

ball cock

noun
  1. a device for regulating the flow of a liquid into a tank, cistern, etc, consisting of a floating ball mounted at one end of an arm and a valve on the other end that opens and closes as the ball falls and rises with the water level in the cistern
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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