cylinder

noun

1. 1

   A surface created by projecting a closed two-dimensional curve along an axis intersecting the plane of the curve.

   When the two-dimensional curve is a circle, the cylinder is called a circular cylinder. When the axis is perpendicular to the plane of the curve, the cylinder is called a right cylinder. In non-mathematical usage, both right and circular are usually implied.

2. 2

   A solid figure bounded by a cylinder and two parallel planes intersecting the cylinder.

3. 3

   Any object in the form of a circular cylinder.

   A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder.

4. 4

   A cylindrical cavity or chamber in a mechanism, such as the counterpart to a piston found in a piston-driven engine.

5. 5

   The space in which a piston travels inside a reciprocating engine or pump.

6. 6

   A container in the form of a cylinder with rounded ends for storing pressurized gas; a gas cylinder.

7. 7

   An early form of phonograph recording, made on a wax cylinder.

8. 8

   The part of a revolver that contains chambers for the cartridges.

9. 9

   The corresponding tracks on a vertical arrangement of disks in a disk drive considered as a unit of data capacity.

verb

1. 1

   To calender; to press (paper, etc.) between rollers to make it glossy.

Forms

plural

cylinders

past tense

cylindered

past participle

cylindered

present participle

cylindering

third person singular

cylinders