screw propeller


noun
  1. a rotary propelling device, as for a ship or airplane, consisting of a number of blades that radiate from a central hub and are so inclined to the plane of rotation as to tend to drive a helical path through the substance in which they rotate.

Origin of screw propeller

1
First recorded in 1830–40

Other words from screw propeller

  • screw-pro·pelled, adjective

Words Nearby screw propeller

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use screw propeller in a sentence

  • In fact, the Lycian design is a fair representation of the modern screw propeller, and gives the idea of a whirling motion.

    The Swastika | Thomas Wilson
  • The first ship fitted with the screw propeller was called the "Archimedes."

    Great Facts | Frederick C. Bakewell
  • The best steamers, therefore, are fitted with the twin-screw propeller.

    The Story of Great Inventions | Elmer Ellsworth Burns
  • Professor Greenhill has advanced in our pages a new theory of the screw propeller.

  • These were the building of iron instead of wooden ships and the replacing of the paddle wheel by the screw propeller.

British Dictionary definitions for screw propeller

screw propeller

noun
  1. an early form of ship's propeller in which an Archimedes' screw is used to produce thrust by accelerating a flow of water

Derived forms of screw propeller

  • screw-propelled, adjective

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