carburetor

[kahr-buh-rey-ter, -byuh-]

noun

a device for mixing vaporized fuel with air to produce a combustible or explosive mixture, as for an internal-combustion engine.

Also car·bu·ra·tor, car·bu·ret·er; especially British, car·bu·ret·tor, car·bu·ret·ter

[kahr-byuh-ret-er] /ˈkɑr byəˌrɛt ər/.

Origin of carburetor

First recorded in 1860–65; carburet + -or²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for carburetor

Historical Examples of carburetor

The first was sure that there was dirt on the point of the needle valve, in the carburetor.
Free Air
Sinclair Lewis
At that moment Martin Dockerill suggested that the carburetor was dirty.
The Trail of the Hawk
Sinclair Lewis
A bit of tinkering with the carburetor, and the engine purred softly.
Life in a Tank
Richard Haigh
We took the gas line off at the carburetor and blew it out with compressed air.
Smugglers' Reef
John Blaine
I am sure that the trifling disorder in the carburetor may be corrected.
The Secret Witness
George Gibbs

Word Origin and History for carburetor

device to enhance a gas flame, 1866, from carburet "compound of carbon and another substance" (1795, now displaced by carbide), also used as a verb, "to combine with carbon" (1802); from carb-, comb. form of carbon, + -uret, an archaic suffix formed from Modern Latin -uretum to parallel French words in -ure. Motor vehicle sense is from 1896.