Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The part of a solid, such as a cone or pyramid, between two parallel planes cutting the solid, especially the section between the base and a plane parallel to the base.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A piece; particularly, a remaining piece of something of which a part is lacking, as the drum of a column.
  • noun In geometry, the part of a solid next the base, left after cutting off the top part by a plane parallel to the base; or the part of any solid between two planes, which may be either parallel or inclined to each other: as, the frustum of a cone, of a pyramid, of a conoid, of a spheroid, or of a sphere.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Geom.) The part of a solid next the base, formed by cutting off the, top; or the part of any solid, as of a cone, pyramid, etc., between two planes, which may be either parallel or inclined to each other.
  • noun (Arch.) One of the drums of the shaft of a column.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cone or pyramid whose tip has been truncated by a plane parallel to its base.
  • noun A region of a sphere delimited by two parallel planes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a truncated cone or pyramid; the part that is left when a cone or pyramid is cut by a plane parallel to the base and the apical part is removed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin frūstum, piece broken off.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin frustum ("morsel").

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Examples

  • "The arrival of the frustum is a significant milestone.

    collectSPACE Today In Space History 2009

  • The forward assembly, composed of the forward skirt, forward skirt extension and the frustum, was moved Thursday from Kennedy's Assembly Refurbishment Facility, or ARF, to the Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking operations.

    Ares Still Struggles Ahead for 1-X Launch - NASA Watch 2009

  • It appears to me, to make it safe NASA is working on take the Human out of the loop for Launch and Entry/Return at both ends being the earth and moon and spending billons on a frustum and rocket to get there and back.

    A Shift in Policy? Moon Base Axed? - NASA Watch 2009

  • The frustum never had room for 6 crew, it was just an illusion put forth so the program would get support,

    Orion Slims Down - NASA Watch 2009

  • The forward assembly, composed of the forward skirt, forward skirt extension and the frustum, was moved Thursday from Kennedy's Assembly Refurbishment Facility, or ARF, to the Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking operations.

    NASA Watch: June 2009 Archives 2009

  • Vibrations and failure to heed the warnings by the contractor resulted in the loss of the STS-4 (IIRC) boosters when the main parachute deck fitting separation explosive bolts inadvertantly fired prematurely when the linear shaped charge used to separate the frustum (nose cone) from the booster fired and generated vibes that the decelerometers sensed as water-impact ... at 10,000 ft.!

    More Ares Woes - NASA Watch 2009

  • The forward assembly, composed of the forward skirt, forward skirt extension and the frustum, was moved Thursday from Kennedy's Assembly Refurbishment Facility, or ARF, to the Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking operations.

    NASA Watch: Keith Cowing: June 2009 Archives 2009

  • Smirking, ignorant W. with lipstick in reply to a comment from frustum

    Associated Press: Pet Owners Prefer McCain To "Petless" Obama 2009

  • Editor's note: Last week NASA decided to implement the so called "Option 2B Active Aft Skirt Reaction Mass Actuator RMA option" with "damping and isolation at the FS frustum/US region" in order to deal with the thrust oscillation problem with the current design of the Ares 1 launch vehicle.

    NASA Watch: Keith Cowing: August 2008 Archives 2008

  • What I and apparently LaVey thought was a trapezohedron -- a polyhedron with trapezoids for sides -- is actually a frustum.

    Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2007

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