cylinders

Noun

cylinder (plural cylinders)

1. A surface created by projecting a closed two-dimensional curve along an axis intersecting the plane of the curve.
   • When the two-dimensional curve is a circle, the cylinder is called a circular cylinder. When the axis is perpendicular to the plane of the curve, the cylinder is called a right cylinder. In non-mathematical usage, both right and circular are usually implied.
2. A solid figure bounded by a cylinder and two parallel planes intersecting the cylinder.
3. Any object in the form of a circular cylinder.
   • A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder.1898, H. G. Wells, chapter 4, in The War of the Worlds
4. A cylindrical cavity or chamber in a mechanism, such as the counterpart to a piston found in a piston-driven engine.
5. The space in which a piston travels inside a reciprocating engine or pump.
6. A container in the form of a cylinder with rounded ends for storing pressurized gas; a gas cylinder.

See all 10 meanings of cylinder