friction

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“
On the surface, the source of the friction was the attempt made by the Ohio and Illinois operators to organize a national coal operators' association to take the place of the several autonomous district organizations.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun The rubbing of one object or surface against another.
  2. noun Conflict, as between persons having dissimilar ideas or interests; clash.
  3. noun Physics A force that resists the relative motion or tendency to such motion of two bodies in contact.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The only reason that war is limited, according to Clausewitz is political calculation or what he called "friction" - the fog of war that slows down military operations. —  MercatorNet
  • The closer our friction variable is to one the slicker our surface is … If the friction is above one our ship will gain speed, below one it will lose speed. —  Pixel2Life.com: Latest 15 Tutorials
  • The floor of the playing area is low-friction, as are the robots 'regulation wheels, so the team had to install traction-control sensors and related software to make things work. —  Paul & Matt's Sports Attack
  • Middlemen were friction, and the Web was a friction-removing machine. —  doggdot.us
  • Adding to the friction is the fact that with three weeks to go before St. Louis hosts the NCAA Women's Final Four, the event's local organizing committee is $500,000 short of the money it needs to cover its expenses. —  St. Louis Business News - Local St. Louis News | The St. Louis Business Journal
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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friction:   frictions
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin frictiō, frictiōn-, from frictus, past participle of fricāre, to rub.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French friction = Spanish friccion = Portuguese fricção, from Latin frictio(n-), a rubbing, rubbing down (of parts of the body), from Latin fricare, past participle frictus, also fricatus, rub, rub down.
 

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/ˈfrɪkʃən/
by American Heritage

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