knife switch

American  

noun

Electricity.

1. a form of air switch in which a moving element, usually a hinged blade, is placed between two contact clips.

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knife switch British  

noun

1. an electric switch in which a flat metal blade, hinged at one end, is pushed between fixed contacts

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Etymology

Origin of knife switch

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

knife switch

One of the main switches for the reactor at Obninsk is a double-pole, single-throw knife switch, a device that now turns up in the U.S. only in the laboratory scenes of Frankenstein movies.

From Time Magazine Archive

If you will open that cupboard on the wall, you’ll find an open knife switch on the wall.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930 by Bates, Harry

He threw a small knife switch and again turned.

From The Affair of the Brains by Gilmore, Anthony

In Figure 43 each battery has a double pole, double throw knife switch.

From The Automobile Storage Battery Its Care And Repair by Witte, Otto A.

Then, as he proved them for the last time, his hand went slowly to the small knife switch upon the box at his elbow.

From The Ultimate Experiment by DeKy, Thornton