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spring-loaded

American  
[spring-loh-did] / ˈsprɪŋˈloʊ dɪd /

adjective

  1. (of a machine part) kept normally in a certain position by a spring.

    a spring-loaded safety valve.


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.

By contrast, he’s more optimistic about organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, where the central bureaucracy doesn’t seem “spring-loaded to thwart innovation.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Many past attempts have featured metal rods inserted into lava, pushed by hand or by spring-loaded piston, or even fired into the lava like a spear, to estimate the viscosity of the flow.

From Science Daily

There was that special, spring-loaded tension of the media apparatus readying to deliver big news after days of vamping.

From New York Times

"As the thinner sea ice expands and contracts more, it generates more momentum for the sea ice, just like one of those spring-loaded toy cars goes faster the farther back you pull it," explains Tandon.

From Science Daily

The groove is spring-loaded, Caribbean-tinged and jazzy, and it works through ever-changing variations — with call-and-response vocals, teasing guitar lines, electronics and horns — on the way to a seamless segue into the next song, “Haute.”

From New York Times