Pages

Monday 14 May 2012

Entry: rheostat (n.)


In context: "Orin liked to adjust the co-op's rheostat all the way down when Joelle wasn't home and haul out the diskettes and make Jiffy Pop and watch her little ten-second clips of him over and over."

Definition: See (b):

A variable resistor used to control the current in a circuit; spec.  (a) one comprising a wire-wound core along which a sliding contact can be moved, used for controlling large currents;  (b) (in later use) one used to control the brightness of electric lighting; a dimmer; also in figurative contexts. Cf. potentiometer n. 2.


Other: I sort of feel like today's entries are maybe pretty commonplace, but they jumped out at me.

SNOOT score: 1

Page: 298
 
Source: Oxford English Dictionary   


No comments:

Post a Comment