ratchet1
[rach-it]
- a toothed bar with which a pawl engages.
- (not in technical use) a pawl or the like used with a ratchet or ratchet wheel.
- a mechanism consisting of such a bar or wheel with the pawl.
- ratchet wheel.
- a steady progression up or down: the upward ratchet of oil prices.
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- to move by degrees (often followed by up or down): to ratchet prices up; Interest rates have been ratcheting downward.
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Origin of ratchet1
1650–60; alteration of French rochet; Middle French rocquet a blunt lance-head < Germanic
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ratcheted
Contemporary Examples
First, Republican legislatures have ratcheted up the attempts at suppression.
The IMF ratcheted down its estimate for global growth this week.
Many owe the lasting success of older players to the increasing value placed upon raw power as racket technology has ratcheted up.
Because doing more, they say, would have ratcheted up expectations that he might win, making a loss all the more devastating.
Later in the day, she ratcheted up the sentiment: "Arghhhhh!"
ratchet
- a device in which a toothed rack or wheel is engaged by a pawl to permit motion in one direction only
- the toothed rack or wheel forming part of such a device
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- to operate using a ratchet
- (usually foll by up or down) to increase or decrease, esp irreversiblyelectricity prices will ratchet up this year; Hitchcock ratchets up the tension once again
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Word Origin
C17: from French rochet, from Old French rocquet blunt head of a lance, of Germanic origin: compare Old High German rocko distaff
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for ratcheted
ratchet
n.
1650s, rochet, from French rochet "bobbin, spindle," from Italian rocchetto "spool, ratchet," diminutive of rocca "distaff," possibly from a Germanic source (cf. Old High German rocko "distaff," Old Norse rokkr), from Proto-Germanic *rukka-, from PIE root *ruk- "fabric, spun yarn." Cf. rocket (n.2). Current spelling in English dates from 1721, influenced by synonymous ratch, which perhaps is borrowed from German Rätsche "ratchet."
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ratchet
v.
1852, from ratchet (n.). Transferred sense attested by 1977. Related: Ratcheted; ratcheting.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper