Word.ws English Dictionary

gimbal

/ˈd͡ʒɪmbəl/

gimbal noun: a device for suspending something, such as a ship's compass, so that it will remain level when its support is tipped.

Noun

gimbal (plural gimbals)

  1. A device for suspending something, such as a ship's compass, so that it will remain level when its support is tipped.
    • The lamp wriggled in its gimbals, the barometer swung in circles, the table altered its slant every moment […]1902, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in Typhoon
    • He lifted the chronometer off the gimbals on which it was slung in the mahogany case and showed the number engraved upon the bottom.1934, A. E. W. Mason, “The Chronometer,” Chapter II, in Dilemmas, London: Hodder & Stoughton

Verb

gimbal (third-person singular simple present gimbals, present participle (US) gimbaling or (UK) gimballing, simple past and past participle (US) gimbaled or (UK) gimballed)

  1. (transitive) To suspend using a gimbal or gimbals.
    • […] he conned his course in masterly fashion by aid of the roller-map, protected by its transparent, rainproof casing, or the compass, clock, altimeter, and other instruments gimballed in the wooden frame in front of the pilot’s seat.1918, Richard Dehan (Clotilde Graves), That Which Hath Wings, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Chapter 32
  2. (transitive) To move a reaction engine about on a gimbal so as to obtain pitching and yawing correction moments.
  3. (intransitive) To swivel, move on an axis.

gimbal meaning in Indonesian

gimbal in Indonesian

device for suspending something
gimbal

Forms of gimbal

Noun
pluralgimbals
Verb
third-person singular presentgimbals
present participle USgimbaling
present participle UKgimballing
past participle USgimbaled
past USgimbaled
past participle UKgimballed
past UKgimballed

Origin of gimbal

Alteration of gemel, from Old French gemel, jumel (“twin”) (French jumeau), from Latin gemellus.

Words formed from gimbal

Phrases with gimbal

Words that rhyme with gimbal

Questions about gimbal

What does gimbal mean?
Gimbal means a device for suspending something, such as a ship's compass, so that it will remain level when its support is tipped.
What is gimbal in Indonesian?
Gimbal in Indonesian is gimbal. See Gimbal meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is gimbal?
Gimbal can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce gimbal?
Gimbal is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɪmbəl/.
What is the plural of gimbal?
The plural of gimbal is gimbals.

Words near gimbal in the dictionary

  1. gim
  2. gim-peg
  3. gim-pegs
  4. Gimagaan
  5. GImages
  6. gimbal
  7. gimbal lock
  8. gimbal locks
  9. gimbaled
  10. gimbaling
  11. gimballed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gimbal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gimbal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gimbal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.