SWITCH • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Switch

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/swɪtʃ/ Listen

noun

Switch n.

1.

A small, flexible twig or rod. "Mauritania, on the fifth medal, leads a horse with something like a thread; in her other hand she holds a switch."

2.

(Railways) A movable part of a rail; or of opposite rails, for transferring cars from one track to another.

3.

A separate mass or trees of hair, or of some substance (at jute) made to resemble hair, worn on the head by women.

4.

(Elec.) A device for shifting an electric current to another circuit, or for making and breaking a circuit.

Safety switch (Railways), a form of switch contrived to prevent or lessen the danger of derailment of trains.

Switch back (Railways), an arrangement of tracks whereby elevations otherwise insurmountable are passed. The track ascends by a series of zigzags, the engine running alternately forward and back, until the summit is reached.

Switch board (Elec.), a collection of switches in one piece of apparatus, so arranged that a number of circuits may be connected or combined in any desired manner.

Switch grass. (Bot.) See under Grass.

verb

Switch v. t. (past & past part. switched; pres. part. switching)

1.

To strike with a switch or small flexible rod; to whip.

2.

To swing or whisk; as, to switch a cane.

3.

To trim, as, a hedge. (Prov. Eng.)

4.

To turn from one railway track to another; to transfer by a switch; generally with off, from, etc.; as, to switch off a train; to switch a car from one track to another.

5.

(Eccl.) To shift to another circuit.

Switch v. i. To walk with a jerk. (Prov. Eng.)

See images of 'Switch'

Etymology of 'Switch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Switch" Quotes from Famous Books

... be found in any sanitarium in the United States and, we believe, in the world. There are two forty-cell galvanic batteries with switch boards for controlling the voltage, or force, from the whole power to one-fortieth of this amount, at the will of the physician. Safe-guards in the shape of milli-ampere meters continually indicate to the operator the force of the current. There ...

— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... she sez. 'He swore he'd marry me inside of an hour. This man hyer—his brother—made out like he wuz a preacher an' married us. Tell my father that an' ask him to forgive me if he can.' That wuz all she said. Ranse Roush hit her horse with a switch an' sez, 'Yo' kin tell him all that yore own self soon as you git home.' I reckon I wuz the lastest person ...

— A Man Four-Square • William MacLeod Raine

... hull of the MR4. Its outer hull was almost at the boiling point. Inside, it was a burning, suffocating hell. Perhaps it was the heat that aroused Hal Burnett once again. Somehow he managed to stumble to the Tele-screen. With the last vestige of a waning strength, he managed to switch it on ...

— Rescue Squad • Thomas J. O'Hara

... however, to climb into the high wooden saddle, and Cuthbert tried several times in vain. Then he repeated in a sharp tone the words which he had heard the Arabs use to order their camels to kneel, striking the animal at the same moment behind the fore-legs with a small switch. The camel immediately obeyed the order to which he was accustomed, and knelt down, making, however, as he did so, the angry grumble which those creatures appear to consider it indispensable to raise when ordered to do anything. Fortunately this noise is so frequently made, and the camels ...

— Winning His Spurs - A Tale of the Crusades • George Alfred Henty

... Oh, you are reverencing him to-day; well, then bear in mind that probably about the same time tomorrow morning you will be gripping for the scruff of his neck, and when you grip him, grip him hard, it is no time for half-way measures. Never hit a boy at that age with a switch. If you do you are lost. Either don't hit ...

— Parent and Child Vol. III., Child Study and Training • Mosiah Hall

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