elevator

Noun
Synonyms: lift

WordNet 3.0

Noun (2)

  1. lifting device consisting of a platform or cage that is raised and lowered mechanically in a vertical shaft in order to move people from one floor to another in a buildingSynonyms: lift
  2. the airfoil on the tailplane of an aircraft that makes it ascend or descend
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Elevator \El"e*va`tor\, n. [L., one who raises up, a deliverer: cf. F. ['e]l['e]vateur.]

1.One who, or that which, raises or lifts up anything. [1913 Webster]

2.A mechanical contrivance, usually an endless belt or chain with a series of scoops or buckets, for transferring grain to an upper loft for storage. [1913 Webster]

3.A cage or platform (called an elevator car) and the hoisting machinery in a hotel, warehouse, mine, etc., for conveying persons, goods, etc., to or from different floors or levels; -- called in England a lift; the cage or platform itself. [1913 Webster]

4.A building for elevating, storing, and discharging, grain. [1913 Webster]

5.(Anat.) A muscle which serves to raise a part of the body, as the leg or the eye. [1913 Webster]

6.(Surg.) An instrument for raising a depressed portion of a bone. [1913 Webster]

7.(A["e]ronautics) A movable plane or group of planes used to control the altitude or fore-and-aft poise or inclination of an airship or flying machine. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Elevator head, Elevator leg, & Elevator boot, the boxes in which the upper pulley, belt, and lower pulley, respectively, run in a grain elevator. [1913 Webster]

Elevator shoes, shoes having unusually thick soles and heels, designed to make a person appear taller than he or she actually is. [PJC]

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