nounfulcra, fulcrums

• 1The point on which a lever rests or is supported and on which it pivots.

  ‘By rotating the dial, the pivot point or the fulcrum of the brake lever moves in and out.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Gone are the levers and fulcrums and bearings and the substantial frame that once kept typewriters from shaking apart and made them a pretty fair murder weapon in the occasional detective story.’
  • ‘The action of adduction along the frontal plane of the body will cause the arm to be moved in a curvilinear arc (the arm being a lever system with the fulcrum at the shoulder end).’
  • ‘The fulcrum for the lever action is the surface of the soil when the blade is inserted for digging.’
  • ‘On a hard surface, the base of the scales bowed slightly, shortening the distance between the fulcrum of the levers and the point at which they put pressure on the spring.’
  • ‘The shoulder joint serves as the fulcrum for a third class lever system designed for mobility and speed of movement, not for strength.’
  • ‘Some are quite basic, mere saucer-like indentations, but others are exquisitely engineered with intricate pivots and fulcrums unravelling to form a protruding secure holder.’
  • ‘A perineum on which forceps are used may be thought of more like a mechanical fulcrum than a genital area.’
  • ‘The wholeness of the storm rasped ancient words through the fulcrums of his pivoting bones.’
  • ‘You get higher leverage with the cable attached closer to the to the pivot, as you would expect when moving the person you are trying to lift toward the fulcrum of a teeter totter.’
  • ‘An elastic pole, about 15 feet long, was placed over a fulcrum and fastened to the ground at one end.’
  • ‘When tetrapods bite an object, their jaws are loaded somewhat as beams with the jaw joint acting as a fulcrum.’
  • ‘And Archimedes proved from his axioms on the lever that two unequal weights balance at distances from the fulcrum that are inversely proportional to their weights.’
  • ‘The odd-looking wood ball acts as a fulcrum, transforming even a short handle into a powerful lever.’
  • ‘There's a counterweight to create and a fulcrum to position to solve it.’
  • ‘The right foot was then placed on the platform so that the fulcrum, if present, entered its receiving groove and was held in place while the subject was asked to stand up.’
  • ‘For this mechanism to have worked, the fulcrum, or point of rotation, of the gastralia would have been located dorsal to the ventral end of the pubes.’
  • ‘At the anterior edge of the fulcrum of the pleura is a small articulating process which fit into a socket in the preceding pleura or the margin of the fixed cheek.’
  • ‘Chipping out enough so he can get a bite with the pry bar, he uses the hammer's head as a fulcrum, then leans in with his weight.’
  • ‘The concept, and perceptual experience, of automatic shifting fulcrums will also be explored.’

  Synonyms

  central shaft, fulcrum, axis, axle, swivel, pin, hub, spindle, hinge, pintle, kingpin, gudgeon, trunnion

  1. 1.1A thing that plays a central or essential role in an activity, event, or situation.
     ‘research is the fulcrum of the academic community’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Rediscovered and revitalized, the central space is the fulcrum of the scheme, its character changing with the various levels.’
     • ‘The airy Atrium café is an ingenious use of ‘yard space’ and has become a fulcrum around which the centre rotates, serving affordable gourmet food cooked on the premises, prepared by top chefs.’
     • ‘Yet they camped in the Tullow 22 for most of the closing ten minutes with Stephen Dalton making one good surge for the left corner and O'Brien the fulcrum of drives off penalties after that.’
     • ‘Only two of the six chapters make masculinity a central analytical fulcrum; the other four make mention of it but do not explore it in any real depth.’
     • ‘An American rapprochement with Iran is essential, he would argue, but the real fulcrum should be Najaf.’
     • ‘Yet in the past humanism has always played down our dependency on our planetary habitat, placing the fulcrum of our humanity in an essentially mythological realm of spirit and reason.’
     • ‘Mason always has been a great team player, as long as he was the fulcrum in its offense or played a major role.’
     • ‘The event that forms Ararat's fulcrum is the 1915 attempted genocide of the Armenian people by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.’
     • ‘He was never still, always had the ball, zoomed around larger players, never lost his temper, grinned a small grin, was never the star but always the fulcrum and agent of control and change.’
     • ‘A steel column marking the original exterior wall is the fulcrum for the kitchen's L-shaped layout.’
     • ‘Indeed, it is not too far to say that we are in the midst of a major transition in which China becomes the fulcrum on which future global growth will pivot.’
     • ‘Maybe I'm ignorant to the ways of the marketing world, but I can't imagine Winnie the Pooh being the fulcrum which tips scales in the favor of purchasing a cereal.’
     • ‘When they attacked, Parks was invariably the fulcrum, prompting and probing with his educated boot and exposing the Ospreys' frailty in midfield.’
     • ‘If pre-emption replaces deterrence as the fulcrum of global engineering, then the boundary blurs between the forces of civilisation and terror.’
     • ‘Will this be the fulcrum on which control of the Senate turns?’
     • ‘It might be the fulcrum around which the future of baseball will pivot.’
     • ‘Barrett was the fulcrum on which the game levered Tinryland's way in the first half.’
     • ‘Here the discovery of a sexual relationship between the beguiling pottery teacher and a loutish lad becomes the fulcrum of staff-room power: it seems all too alarmingly possible.’
     • ‘But when you pare away the sentimentality, when you realise that sumptuous as the scenery is it does not pay the mortgage, you appreciate that farming is the fulcrum of rural life, the pivot that makes everything else possible.’