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  1. ratchet love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A mechanism consisting of a pawl that engages the sloping teeth of a wheel or bar, permitting motion in one direction only.
  2. n. The pawl, wheel, or bar of this mechanism.
  3. v. To cause to increase or decrease by increments: "Some companies . . . may make things worse if they seek to ratchet down their medical expenses by limiting benefits for psychological or psychiatric care” ( Newsweek).
  4. v. To increase or decrease by increments.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A detent or pivoted piece designed to fit into the teeth of a ratchet-wheel, permitting the wheel to rotate in one direction, but not in the other. A similar device so arranged as to move the wheel is termed a pallet. (See ratchet-wheel click, 3, pawl, and detent.) Combined with the ratchet-wheel as a means of converting a reciprocating into a rotary motion, the ratchet appears in a number of tools and gives its name to each: as, the ratchet bed-key, etc.
  2. n. In printing, a notched straight blade of brass which rotates the pinions attached to the movable clamps of an electrotype plate mounted upon a block.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A pawl, click, or detent for holding or propelling a ratchet wheel, or ratch, etc.
  2. n. A mechanism composed of a ratchet wheel, or ratch and pawl.
  3. n. A ratchet wrench.
  4. n. A procedure or regulation that goes in one direction, usually up.
  5. v. transitive To cause to become incremented or decremented.
  6. v. intransitive To increment or decrement.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A pawl, click, or detent, for holding or propelling a ratchet wheel, or ratch, etc.
  2. n. A mechanism composed of a ratchet wheel, or ratch, and pawl. See Ratchet wheel, below, and 2d Ratch.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. move by degrees in one direction only
  2. n. mechanical device consisting of a toothed wheel or rack engaged with a pawl that permits it to move in only one direction

Etymologies

  1. French rochet, from Old French rocquet, head of a lance (from the shape of the teeth), of Germanic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Maybe you believe government spending has a built in ratchet that prevents it from ever really coming down, no matter what party is in power.”

    Matthew Yglesias » Cutting the Stimulus

  • “In a moment, opening certain ratchet-holes in the wall of the carriage, he has slided these in at a suitable height above, and covered each with cushions and sleeping-rug.”

    Railway-Cars in America

  • “But you just noted that it was more like a ratchet, which isn't a motor.”

    Analogy, How Scientifically Powerful is It?

  • “Every mechanic knows that a ratchet is a toothed wheel or bar used to prevent a gizmo from moving backward.”

    Simon & Schuster: No Uncertain Terms

  • “It has been defanged a bit over the years, starting with Referendum C, which got rid of the so-called ratchet effect and allowed a five-year timeout on revenue limits, so the state could keep the money it collected over TABOR limits.”

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local

  • “He thinks that so long as the total city budget has grown year to year, and it has, that the ratchet is a myth.”

    Colorado Springs Independent

  • “The ratchet is a fine-tooth model, meaning it takes less than five degrees of swing to activate the ratcheting mechanism.”

    Toolmonger: The Week In Tools

  • “We do not believe that any of these so-called ratchet clauses should be used to hand over more powers from Britain to the EU.”

    British Blogs

  • “TABOR has been defanged a bit over the years, starting with Ref C, which got rid of the so-called ratchet effect and allowed a five-year timeout on revenue limits, so the state could keep the money it collected over TABOR limits.”

    Summit Daily News - Top Stories

  • “The hames have a series of holes (illogically called a ratchet), and the logger-head's two hook-ends are fitted into two of these.”

    Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IV No 3

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘ratchet’.

Comments

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  • yarb Yes! Rrrat-chet. Rrrat-chet. Sep 9, 2009

  • ecbrenner I love this word. I can almost hear the wheel moving. Sep 9, 2009

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‘ratchet’ has been looked up 2196 times, loved by 1 person, added to 31 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.