rotary

adjective ro·ta·ry \ ˈrō-tə-rē \

|Updated on: 1 Aug 2018

Examples: rotary in a Sentence

Definition of rotary

1 a : turning on an axis like a wheel

b : taking place about an axis

rotary motion

2 : having an important part that turns on an axis

rotary cutter

3 : characterized by rotation

4 : of, relating to, or being a press in which paper is printed by rotation in contact with a curved printing surface attached to a cylinder

See rotary defined for English-language learners

See rotary defined for kids

Examples of rotary in a Sentence

the rotary action of the wheel

Recent Examples of rotary from the Web

According to museum president Paul Schneider, the Silsby engines used rotary gears instead of pistons, the common feature of the time.

— mark yost, WSJ, "A Museum to Spark New Interest," 11 July 2018
Winkleman then slowly rotates the guage's rotary handle to move its probe down to the edge of a tiny hole on the side of the gun's frame.

— adam fisher, WIRED, "A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora’s Box for DIY Guns," 10 July 2018
Just a few steps away is his office, with a green lamp and an old rotary phone on top of a dark wooden desk.

— Washington Post, "Where do World Cup fans meet? At Stalin’s secret bunker," 5 July 2018
Want to get started using do-it-all Dremel rotary tools?

— Popular Mechanics, "Today's Best Deals: The Dremel That Does It All," 12 June 2018
The bomber calculates the time of release at the particular airspeed, and automatically opens the bomb bay doors to release the weapons from either a rotary launcher or a bomb rack.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "B-52 Bombers Could Quadruple Their Wing Bomb Loads," 25 June 2018
The logos hint at their previous lives: Kent State University, a rotary club in Pennsylvania, Number One Dad.

— The Economist, "Rwanda refuses to remove tariffs on imports of used clothing," 31 May 2018
Setting them up was like making two calls, one on a rotary phone and another on an iPhone: fundamentally the same experience yet wildly disparate in terms of refinement.

— Outside Online, "Riding 100 Miles* on a 102-Year-Old Bike," 12 June 2018
These moments remain forever alive on YouTube, so that Sam Malone can now be summoned by smartphone the way he was once summoned by rotary-dial bullpen phone.

— steve rushin, SI.com, "How the World Has Changed in the 25 Years Since the Final Cheers Episode," 22 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rotary.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.