Switch definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (81)

American Heritage Dictionary (21)

noun A slender flexible rod, stick, or twig, especially one used for whipping.
noun The bushy tip of the tail of certain animals: a cow's switch.
noun A thick strand of real or synthetic hair used as part of a coiffure.

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Century Dictionary (43)

A small flexible twig or rod. Bell. Shall's to horse? here 's a tickler; heigh, to horse! May. Come, switch and spurs! let's mount our chevals; merry, quoth a'. Dekker and Webster, Northward Ho, iv. 3. She had cut a willow switch in her morning's walk, almost as long as a boy's fishing-rod. Scott, Heart of Mid-Lothian, xxxi.
A mechanical device for shifting a moving body, or a current of electricity, etc., from one course or track to another. Specifically— In railroads, in its simplest form, two parallel lengths of rails joined together by rods, pivoted at one end, and free to move at the other end, forming a part of the track at its junction with a branch or siding. The switch-rails rest on metal plates laid on the sleepers, and, by means of a rod fastened to their free ends, can be moved sidewise. The ends of the next pair of rails and the ends of the first pair of the siding or branch are placed side by side, so that by the movement of the switch either pair may be brought in line with the track, and any car or engine passing the switch will be guided upon the rails to which the switch is directed. Such a switch may be used to connect several lines of rails. The objection to this form of switch is that a car moving on a track not connected with the switch is liable to be derailed by running off the open ends of the track. This has led to the adoption of safety-switches, of which there are various forms. One of the most common of these is the split switch, in which the ends of the rails, instead of being square, are drawn out (split) to a thin edge so as to lie close against the side of the next rail. The narrow rails used are flexible and are fitted with springs, so that in the event of a displacement of the switch the lateral pressure of the wheels will cause the points to move back and thus keep the wheels on the line, the points returning to their original position by the recoil of the springs. Another form of safety-switch is designed to keep unbroken the track of the main line, so that the main-line rails are not cut at all. To use this form of switch the levers are moved, and the car rises on an inclined rail and passes over the main rails to the siding. A great number of devices have been invented to make switches more safe, to render them automatic (as at the terminus of a line where the engine is to be shifted to the other end of a train), to render them interlocking, so that no one switch of a system can be opened without locking all others, and to connect them with signals and annunciators. Switches in one yard are now commonly controlled by means of long levers with a central tower from which one switchman can see and control them all. In telegraphy, a device used to make or break a circuit, to join two lines of wire or a main wire with a branch wire, or to connect any telegraph, telephone, electric-light, or electric-signal wires in any manner. The most simple form of switch is a lever pivoted at one end and connected with one circuit, and, by its movement laterally, used to connect that circuit with one of several others. Another simple form, called the plug- or peg-switch, consists of a metal plug or peg that may be inserted in openings or spaces between metal rods connected with different circuits. The peg serves as a bridge to join different circuits. The peg may also be connected with a short piece of flexible wire, the wire serving as a bridge for the current. By moving the peg from place to place on the switch-board, the wire serves as a switch to divert the current from one line to another. See switchboard.
In some forms of gas-burner, a key for controlling the amount of gas allowed to pass through.

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Examples (50)

Once the switch is activated, the viral genome replication starts. — CreationWiki - Recent changes [en]
Besides windows has it own firewall so a switch is all you need. — PCLinuxOS-Forums
A Nyquist Capital analyst in 2007 deconstructed Google's performance and deduced that the company had built a new 10-gigabit switch, and that the Arista switch was a remarkable match for it. — Washington Technology Current Issue
Wildstrom guesses that the relatively small minority who aren't ready for the switch will be any more ready in June. — ABQnews Seeker Front Page
Unlike in basketball, the switch is a little tricky and rarely occurs within a single game. — NFL Football News | Realfootball365.com

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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 (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Probably of Low German or Flemish origin.

Century Dictionary (2)

Formerly also swich; an assibilated form of swick, from Middle Dutch swick, a whip, a switch, also a brandishing, from swicken, swing, wag; cf. Icelandic sveigr, svigi = Norwegian svige, sveg = Swedish sveg, a switch; connected with Swedish sviga, bend; cf. sway, swing. With swing is ult. connected Middle Dutch swanck, a switch, from swancken, Dutch zwanken, bend.
Formerly also swich; from switch, n.; in part prob. of more orig. standing, representing the verb from which switch is ult. derived.

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