four-cycle

[ fawr-sahy-kuhl, fohr- ]

/ ˈfɔrˌsaɪ kəl, ˈfoʊr- /

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adjective

noting or pertaining to an internal-combustion engine in which a complete cycle in each cylinder requires four strokes, one to draw in air or an air-fuel mixture, one to compress it, one to ignite it and do work, and one to scavenge the cylinder.

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Also four-stroke.

Compare two-cycle.

Origin of four-cycle

First recorded in 1905–10

Words nearby four-cycle

fourchette, four-color, four-color problem, four-colour, four-corners, four-cycle, four-deal bridge, four-dimensional, Fourdrinier, four-eyed, four-eyed fish

How to use four-cycle in a sentence

There are four photos there of representative presidential candidates.
Today’s GOP: Still Cool With Racist Pandering?|Michael Tomasky|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Four weeks after the injections, all 20 of the participants had developed the antibodies needed to stave off the infection.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
After four or five months of casual interaction, they realized they both had lost a young parent to cancer.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone|Samantha Levine|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The injunction, she argued, only applies to these four plaintiffs—not to anyone else.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally Over|Jay Michaelson|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Each CAP, also known as an “orbit,” consists on four aircraft.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A little boy of four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.
Children's Ways|James Sully
In cross-section the burrows varied from round (three inches in diameter) to oval (three inches high and four inches wide).
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
Before the spinet a bench was placed about four feet below the keys, and I was put upon the bench.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
We had six field-pieces, but we only took four, harnessed wit twice the usual number of horses.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
The Seven-score and four on the six middle Bells, the treble leading, and the tenor lying behind every change, makes good Musick.
Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing|Richard Duckworth and Fabian Stedman

British Dictionary definitions for four-cycle

four-cycle

adjective

US and Canadian relating to or designating an internal-combustion engine in which the piston makes four strokes for every explosionEquivalent term (in Britain and certain other countries): four-stroke Compare two-stroke

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