knife switch
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of knife switch
First recorded in 1905–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Lucci was adept with a screwdriver but innocent of any physics knowledge; his particular pleasure was to throw the heavy knife switch that turned on the accelerator, an operation that delivered an electrical surge occasionally strong enough to knock out power to the lab, the campus, or even to the entire city of Berkeley.
From Literature
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Amber No. 32 in fireplace on knife switch to be flickered when Celia throws letters and army list into fire.
From Project Gutenberg
Oliver's "Knife Switch Intuitive" is another interactive piece: an amalgam of steel, wood, brass, copper and electrical components that, at the press of a button, sends flamelike lights traveling up three dark glass tubes.
From Seattle Times
One of the main switches for the reactor at Obninsk is a double-pole, single-throw knife switch, a device that now turns up in the U.S. only in the laboratory scenes of Frankenstein movies.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The switch S is a small knife switch.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.