Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A rotating frame, containing the escapement of a clock or watch, that attempts to compensate for the effects of gravity.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French tourbillon ‘whirlwind’.

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Examples

  • The mechanical design of the Cabestan, including its tourbillon, is totally transversal.

    Boing Boing: January 22, 2006 - January 28, 2006 Archives 2006

  • I have known before what it is to be in what our neighbours have called a tourbillon, but never on such a scale as this.

    The Horror of the Heights Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1992

  • I have known before what it is to be in what our neighbours have called a tourbillon, but never on such a scale as this.

    Tales of Terror and Mystery Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • Forestier-Kasapi said the tourbillon was a mechanism that allowed the balance spring to rotate completely in a vertical plane at a speed typically of one complete revolution per minute.

    NYT > Home Page By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP 2011

  • A tourbillon is a rotational device that improves accuracy by counteracting the effects of gravity on the gears of a mechanical watch.

    NYT > Home Page By VICTORIA GOMELSKY 2010

  • We've just returned home from our two-week west coast "wine and word" tour, or "tourbillon".

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • We've just returned home from our two-week west coast "wine and word" tour, or "tourbillon".

    tourbillon - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • We've just returned home from our two-week west coast "wine and word" tour, or "tourbillon".

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

  • We've just returned home from our two-week west coast "wine and word" tour, or "tourbillon".

    tourbillon - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • We've just returned home from our two-week west coast "wine and word" tour, or "tourbillon".

    French Word-A-Day: 2008

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