Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Spiral
1.
Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it;
as, the
. spiral
curve of a watch spring2.
Winding round a cylinder or imaginary axis, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like the thread of a screw; helical.
3.
(Geom.)
Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral.
Spiral gear
, or
Spiral wheel
(Mach.)
, a gear resembling in general a spur gear, but having its teeth cut at an angle with its axis, or so that they form small portions of screws or spirals.
– Spiral gearing
, a kind of gearing sometimes used in light machinery, in which spiral gears, instead of bevel gears, are used to transmit motion between shafts that are not parallel.
– Spiral operculum
, an operculum whih has spiral lines of growth.
– Spiral shell
, any shell in which the whorls form a spiral or helix.
– Spiral spring
. See the Note under , 4.
Spring
, Noun.
1.
(Geom.)
A plane curve, not reentrant, described by a point, called the generatrix, moving along a straight line according to a mathematical law, while the line is revolving about a fixed point called the pole. Cf.
Helix
. 2.
Anything which has a spiral form, as a spiral shell.
Equiangular spiral
,a plane curve which cuts all its generatrices at the same angle. Same as
– Logarithmic spiral
, under Logarithmic
. Spiral of Archimedes
, a spiral the law of which is that the generatrix moves uniformly along the revolving line, which also moves uniformly.
Webster 1828 Edition
Spiral
SPI'RAL
,Adj.