Main definitions of rotary in English

: rotary¹ Rotary²

rotary¹

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adjective

1(of motion) revolving around a center or axis; rotational.
‘a rotary motion’
- ‘No mention is made of rotary motion from the elbow or lateral movement from the wrist.’
- ‘The back and forth movement of each piston was translated into rotary motion by a crank shaft.’
- ‘These are potentiometers that operate in a linear direction as opposed to a rotary direction.’
1. 1.1(of a thing) acting by means of rotation, especially (of a machine) operating through the rotation of some part.
  ‘a rotary mower’
  ‘If it had a USB port, there would be a lot of money to be made by selling a plug-in rotary dial unit to operate the thing properly.’
  ‘Ellison's most recent expansion provided the company with some additional equipment including a computer controlled wire-cut machine and a rotary molder.’
  ‘Dozens of cultivation tools are at the organic producer's disposal, he added, from rotary hoes to new machines that simply vibrate soil to uproot newly sprouted weeds.’
  ‘Sidel builds machinery for aseptic packaging of plastic bottles, with a focus on high-speed rotary machines.’
  ‘A compact utility room houses a shower, hand basin and toilet together with commercial laundry machines and a rotary iron.’
  ‘We've gone from having local farmers help out with labeling by hand to running automated labeling machines and high-speed rotary mold machines.’
  ‘There were mechanical, rotary dial types and these were pretty good as you could set almost any time very quickly.’
  ‘This is particularly true of rotary combines that operate better at full load.’
  ‘Publishing used to be a very mechanical industry: trays of metal type, huge Linotype type-casting machines weighing a tonne or so each, gigantic rotary printing machines, and so on.’
  ‘Back in the 1940s, when the area code system was designed, there was no such thing as a touch-tone phone - all telephones operated via rotary dialing pulse operation.’
  ‘A rotary dial switch instead of the momentary-contact one used would be a cheap way for it to remember the setting you preferred.’
  ‘After a short while, in fact several times a day, he has to resharpen the chisels on a rotary grinding wheel he's acquired.’
  ‘It packs motorized faders, multifunction rotary encoders and a host of keys.’
  ‘The sole clearly shows the regularly spaced, parallel tool marks of a powered rotary planer.’
  ‘The coil is connected to the main tube by a rotary valve and converts the trombone into a bass in F.’
  ‘You may recall that rotary joysticks have handles that rotate to 12 different positions, designed for aiming in certain games.’
  ‘For maximum effectiveness, a rotary hoe should be used when weeds are in the ‘white stage ‘, or just emerging from the soil.’’
  ‘Ground speed with a rotary hoe should usually be between 8 and 12 mph, and the hoe tips should penetrate deep enough to go through any crust that has formed.’
  ‘Thankfully, these rotary engines show no protest whatsoever when you do work them hard.’
  ‘After passage through glass fiber filter paper, the filtrate was concentrated using a rotary vacuum evaporator.’
  rotating, rotatory, rotational, revolving, turning, spinning, gyrating, gyratory, whirling
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Pronunciation

rotary

/ˈrōdərē/ /ˈroʊdəri/

nounplural noun rotaries

1A rotary machine, engine, or device.
‘there is an output level rotary for overall volume setting’
- ‘By learning from the faults of previous large out-front turf rotaries and increasing engine horsepower, this unit has performed very well for many courses.’
- ‘My experiences with Mazda rotaries has left me an ardent enthusiast of the engine for life.’
- ‘An agricultural chemical dealer in the Hingurakgoda area had about 600 small tractors and tractor rotaries, all of which had been pawned.’
- ‘She looked rather lost unused to choosing between an electric hover or a self-propelling rotary.’
- ‘My favourites are still the RX7 rotaries, which give magnificent flameouts and backfires from the exhaust when the drivers lift their foot off the accelerator.’
- ‘They were bringing in legislation to ban any cars delivering more than 95 dBA and the early race trim rotaries were producing 112 dBA.’
- ‘Let us look a little at what the auto manufacturer has done, other than winning Le Mans with its rotaries about 12 years ago.’
- ‘The problem is that rotaries have a dipsomaniacal thirst for petrol and oil and produce most of their power at high revs.’
- ‘His RX-7 made it a solid top four filled with rotaries.’
- ‘On the downside, mulching mowers work less well on wet or overly tall grass compared with nonmulching rotaries, and the cutting blade must be sharp.’
- ‘True, it doesn't get as close as the rotaries, but it gets more hair without making my neck as irritated.’
- ‘Past rotaries demonstrated questionable reliability, high fuel consumption and difficulty meeting emissions standards.’
2North American A traffic circle.
‘On rotaries, the only road signs you see are the ones you've just missed.’
- ‘As usual, the Fresh Pond rotaries were at a standstill.’
rotary, traffic circle
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