Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A continuously variable electrical resistor used to regulate current.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In electromagnetism, an instrument for regulating lating or adjusting a circuit so that any required degree of resistance may be maintained; a resistance-coil. See
resistance , 3.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Elec.) A contrivance for adjusting or regulating the strength of electrical currents, operating usually by the intercalation of resistance which can be varied at will.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
electrical resistor , with twoterminals , whoseresistance is continuouslyvariable by moving a knob or slider.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun resistor for regulating current
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The rheostat, which is in the right part of the figure, has five sliding contacts, each of which can be connected with ten different points.
Respiration Calorimeters for Studying the Respiratory Exchange and Energy Transformations of Man Francis Gano Benedict 1913
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Fan switching is relatively easy however RPM control is not, for this you needed called a rheostat baybus.
Ninjalane RSS News 2009
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Fan switching is relatively easy however RPM control is not, for this you needed called a rheostat baybus.
Ninjalane RSS News 2009
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More recently a new "rheostat" model argues that the responsiveness of each NK cell is tuned by the input of inhibitory receptors
PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Vivien Béziat et al. 2010
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Dr. Wang, with CUMC's Dr. Shigeo Takaishi, and their colleagues, argue that gastrin may serve as a "rheostat" for the stomach.
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Dr. Wang, with CUMC's Dr. Shigeo Takaishi, and their colleagues, argue that gastrin may serve as a "rheostat" for the stomach.
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'rheostat' when the regulatory mechanism operates in a graduated, or quantitative, manner.
Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009
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You just dial this thing up to speed like you're turning up the ceiling-fan rheostat.
BMW 640i: For the All-Business Person Dan Neil 2011
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The rest of the lights on the instrument panel are working fine, so it isn't just that the rheostat is turned down.
A Fairweather Lexus 2011
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Since you can't find food in the dark -- in fact, it's more likely you'd become food -- melatonin acts as a rheostat that lowers body temperature during NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep in order to slow metabolic processes and stave off hunger.
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