volute

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A spiral scroll-like ornament such as that used on an Ionic capital.
2. n. A spiral formation, such as one of the whorls of a gastropod shell.
3. n. Any of various marine gastropod mollusks of the family Volutidae, having a spiral, often colorfully marked shell.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In architecture, a spiral scroll forming an essential part of the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite capitals, of which it is a characteristic ornament. The number of volutes in the Greek Ionic capital is four, two each on opposite faces. In the Corinthian and Composite orders they are more numerous, in the former order being sixteen in number. See helix, 2 (with cut), and cuts under Acanthus, Corinthian, Ionic, and composite. Also voluta.
2. n. In conchology: A member of the Volutidæ. The volutes are chiefly tropical shells, especially of IndoPaciflc waters, some of them of great rarity and beauty, and highly prized by collectors, as V. imperialis, the imperial volute, which shows beautiful sculpture and tracery, and has a circlet of spines like a diadem crowning the very large bodywhorl (see cut under Voluta). The peacock-tail volute, Voluta (or Scaphella) junonia, of quite another form, is white with orange spots, aud was long considered one of the rarest of shells, bringing a very high price. Many of the volutes being well known, they take more distinctive names. Such is the West Indian music-shell, Voluta musica, so called because the markings resemble written music. This species, unlike most volutes, is operculate, and is placed by some authors in another genus, Voluolyria or Musica. Some volutes are known as bat-shetts, as V. vespertilio; others as yets or boat-shells and melon-shells (see cuts under Cymbium and Melo); and some forms, as Cymbium, are oviparous. See also cut under Volutidæ A volution or whorl of a spiral shell
3. In botany, rolled up in any direction.

Wiktionary

1. n. The spiral curve on an Ionic capital.
2. n. The spirls or whorls on a gastropod's shell.
3. n. Any marine gastropod of the (super)family Volutidae.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A spiral scroll which forms the chief feature of the Ionic capital, and which, on a much smaller scale, is a feature in the Corinthian and Composite capitals. See Illust. of Capital, also Helix, and Stale.
2. n. A spiral turn, as in certain shells.
3. n. Any voluta.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. ornament consisting of a curve on a plane that winds around a center with an increasing distance from the center
2. adj. in the shape of a coil
3. n. a structure consisting of something wound in a continuous series of loops