rotor

[ roh-ter ]

noun
  1. Electricity. a rotating member of a machine.: Compare stator (def. 1).

  2. Aeronautics. a system of rotating airfoils, as the horizontal ones of a helicopter or of the compressor of a jet engine.

  1. any of a number of tall, cylindrical devices mounted on a special ship (rotor ship ) and rotated in such a way that the Magnus effect of wind impinging on the cylinders is used to drive and maneuver the vessel.

  2. (in a self-winding watch) a weight eccentrically mounted on an arbor for keeping the mainspring wound.

Origin of rotor

1
First recorded in 1873; short for rotator

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rotor in a sentence

  • It had four rotors instead of the standard three, and unlike other machines they rotated randomly with no predictable pattern.

  • The nose of the car swung east by south; the cold-jet rotors began humming and then the hot-jets were cut in.

    Uller Uprising | Henry Beam Piper, John D. Clark and John F. Carr
  • He banked the copter and cut the jets; the rotors took over and gently lowered the craft to the distant landing field.

    Starman's Quest | Robert Silverberg
  • Something was poised a dozen feet off the ground, a large, box-like object seven or eight feet across, rotors spinning above it.

    Voyage To Eternity | Milton Lesser
  • The rotors whirled a silver shield against the rain, the great drops splattering off the shield.

British Dictionary definitions for rotor

rotor

/ (ˈrəʊtə) /


noun
  1. the rotating member of a machine or device, esp the armature of a motor or generator or the rotating assembly of a turbine: Compare stator

  2. a device having blades radiating from a central hub that is rotated to produce thrust to lift and propel a helicopter

  1. the revolving arm of the distributor of an internal-combustion engine

  2. a violent rolling wave of air occurring in the lee of a mountain or hill, in which the air rotates about a horizontal axis

Origin of rotor

1
C20: shortened form of rotator

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