Cylinder

Pronunciation

Origin

From Middle French cylindre, from Latin cylindrus, from Ancient Greek κύλινδρος.

Noun

1. (geometry) 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. (geometry) A solid figure bounded by a cylinder and two parallel planes intersecting the cylinder.
3. Any object in the form of a circular cylinder.
• 1898 — H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds Ch.4A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder.
4. A cylindrical cavity or chamber in a mechanism, such as the counterpart to a piston found in a piston-driven engine.
5. A container in the form of a cylinder with rounded ends for storing pressurized gas.
6. An early form of phonograph recording, made on a wax cylinder.
7. The part of a revolver that contains chambers for the cartridges.
8. (computing) The corresponding tracks on a vertical arrangement of disks in a disk drive considered as a unit of data capacity.

Derived terms

• cylinder head
• cylindrical
• fire on all cylinders