rotator
Americannoun
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a person or thing that rotates.
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Anatomy. a muscle serving to rotate a part of the body.
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Nautical. a bladed device streamed to rotate in the water to actuate a patent log.
noun
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a person, device, or part that rotates or causes rotation
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anatomy any of various muscles that revolve a part on its axis
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rotator
1670–80; < Latin rotātor, equivalent to rotā ( re ) ( see rotate 1) + -tor -tor
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Researchers are now trying to understand how this galaxy became what scientists call a "slow rotator" so quickly.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026
But in 1981, a rotator cuff injury was a death sentence for a pitcher.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026
After high school, I signed a minor-league contract but tore my rotator cuff.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
“I think people can understand a torn rotator cuff,” Grace says, “but they can’t necessarily understand pelvic hematoma until they’ve had one.”
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2025
These injuries and complaints range from blisters to severe tendonitis, bursitis, slipped vertebrae, rotator cuff dysfunction, and stress fractures, particularly fractures of the ribs.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
"The pentiptycene rotators utilized in this work have several pocket sites," commented Jin.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2023
NSF expects the pilot to affect 50 to 60 rotators over the next year.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 8, 2016
These rapid rotators spin so fast that their shapes are “flattened” into what we call oblate spheroids.
From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016
The muscles most frequently at fault are the sterno-mastoid and trapezius of one side, and the posterior rotators of the opposite side.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
The proximal fragment is kept tilted forward, rotated laterally, and abducted by the ilio-psoas muscle and the lateral rotators inserted in the region of the great trochanter.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
