Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A device by means of which an electric circuit can be periodically interrupted; an interrupter.

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

  • noun (Elec.) An instrument which periodically or otherwise interrupts an electric current.

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

  • noun Any instrument that interrupts an electric current.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From rheo- (“flow, current”) + -tome (“cutter”), literally “flow cutter”.

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Examples

  • In addition to the parts that we have described, there are other accessory ones, R R_r_, and a third clamp, 3, which constitute a sort of rheotome that is designed to keep the circuit closed after the momentary closing that is produced by the telltale has occurred.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 455, September 20, 1884 Various

Comments

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  • An instrument that periodically or otherwise interrupts an electric current.

    November 13, 2007