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Webster 1913 Edition


Fulcrum

Ful′crum

,
Noun.
;
pl. L.
Fulcra
(#)
, E.
Fulcrums
(#)
.
[L., bedpost, fr.
fulcire
to prop.]
1.
A prop or support.
2.
(Mech.)
That by which a lever is sustained, or about which it turns in lifting or moving a body.
3.
(Bot.)
An accessory organ such as a tendril, stipule, spine, and the like.
[R.]
Gray.
4.
(Zool.)
(a)
The horny inferior surface of the lingua of certain insects.
(b)
One of the small, spiniform scales found on the front edge of the dorsal and caudal fins of many ganoid fishes.
5.
(Anat.)
The connective tissue supporting the framework of the retina of the eye.

Webster 1828 Edition


Fulcrum

FUL'CRUM

,

Definition 2024


Fulcrum

Fulcrum

See also: fulcrum

English

Proper noun

Fulcrum

  1. (military) NATO code name for the Soviet MiG-29 aircraft.

fulcrum

fulcrum

See also: Fulcrum

English

The triangle is the fulcrum.

Noun

fulcrum (plural fulcrums or fulcra)

  1. (mechanics) The support about which a lever pivots.
    • It is possible to flick food across the table using your fork as a lever and your finger as a fulcrum.
    • 2010, John Allison, Bad Machinery
      MILDRED: Archimedes said give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I will move the world.
      CHARLOTTE: Yeah she said that twaddle eight or nine times.
    • 2012 March 1, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 112-3:
      A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanismknown as the spindlebeing the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.
  2. (figuratively) A crux or pivot; a central point.
    • 2006, Rebecca Langlands, Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome (page 119)
      By this point the fulcrum of concern is the stuprum of men upon men, described as more prevalent than that upon women.

Translations


Latin

Etymology

From fulciō.

Pronunciation

Noun

fulcrum n (genitive fulcrī); second declension

  1. bedpost
  2. foot (of a couch)
  3. couch

Inflection

Second declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative fulcrum fulcra
genitive fulcrī fulcrōrum
dative fulcrō fulcrīs
accusative fulcrum fulcra
ablative fulcrō fulcrīs
vocative fulcrum fulcra

Descendants

References