Synonyms:
propeller, propellor
Meaning: a mechanical device that rotates to push against air or water
Usage examples
Tom started the propeller.
The first step towards the revolution was taken many years ago when the screw propeller was substituted for the paddle-wheel.
Her lips moved but whether they voiced consent or refusal he did not know, for the words were drowned in the whir of the propeller.
"I said I'd give this beggar the lesson of his life," he murmured as he heard, even above the whir of the propeller, the shriek of the terrified Negro.
If Tom shut off all power, coasted for a moment, and then, ere the propeller had ceased revolving, if he could start the motor on the spark, the silent cylinders might pick up, with the others, and begin again.
In the case of the turbine steamer several of the forms of screw which were first proposed when that type of propeller was invented will again come up for examination, notably the Archimedean screw, wound round a fairly long piece of shafting.
A great increase in the smoothness of running was attained when the screw was invented--a propeller which was entirely sunk in the water and therefore exercised its force, not in shocks, but in gentle constant pressure upon the fluid around it.
Without loss of time the young inventor and the aeronaut began to repair the damage done to the Red Cloud by colliding with the tower. The most important part to reconstruct was the propeller, and Mr. Sharp decided to make two, instead of one, in order to have an extra one in case of future accidents.
Such as the windmill is for wind and the turbine water-wheel for water was the screw propeller, although adapted, not as a generator, but as an application of power. Having made the work and stress continuous, the next thing to be accomplished was to effect a similar reform in the engines supplying the power.
Once seated within what he already considered his new possession, the black's courage began to wane and when the motor was started and the great propeller commenced to whir, he screamed to the Englishman to stop the thing and permit him to alight, but the aviator could neither hear nor understand the black above the noise of the propeller and exhaust.