joystick

or joy stick

[ joi-stik ]

/ ˈdʒɔɪˌstɪk /

noun

Informal. the control stick of an airplane, tank, or other vehicle.

Computers. a lever resembling this, used to control movement of a cursor or other graphic element for video games and computer graphics.Compare mouse(def 4), stylus(def 3).

any leverlike switch for controlling, manipulating, guiding, or the like.

Nearby words

joypad, joypop, joyride, joyrider, joyriding, joystick, jozi, joão pessoa, jp, jpeg, jpn.

Origin of joystick

First recorded in 1905–10; joy + stick¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for joy-stick

At two thousand feet Dastral pushed back the joy-stick, and flattened out.
Dastral of the Flying Corps|Rowland Walker
A girl sat at the joy-stick looking as if carved out of wood.
The White Morning|Gertrude Atherton
Barcroft, his hands resting lightly on the "joy-stick," was keenly alert to every forthcoming move of his adversary.
Billy Barcroft, R.N.A.S.|Percy F. Westerman
He leapt lightly into the machine and jiggled the joy-stick.
Tam O' The Scoots|Edgar Wallace

The light-spot cursor and joy-stick method replace the light pen in this case.
On-Line Data-Acquisition Systems in Nuclear Physics, 1969|H. W. Fulbright et al.

British Dictionary definitions for joy-stick

joystick

/ (ˈdʒɔɪˌstɪk) /

noun

informal the control stick of an aircraft or of any of various machines

computing a lever by means of which the display on a screen may be controlled used esp for games, flight simulators, etc

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