▪ I. ratchet, n.
(ˈrætʃɪt)
Forms: α. 7–8 rochet, -ett, 8 rotchet. β. 8– ratchet, (9 rachet).
[a. F. rochet († roquet), a blunt form of lance-head, or lance having such a head (12–15th c.); a bobbin or spool; also, a ratchet or ratchet-wheel (16th c., in Paré xxiii. xii.) = It. rocchetto spool, ratchet, etc.: see rocket.
The development of the sense of ‘ratchet’ in F. and It. is not clear; it may have originated in the words being applied to spindles or barrels (in mechanism) provided with teeth.]
1. a. A set of angular or saw-like teeth on the edge of a bar or rim of a wheel, into which a cog, tooth, click, or the like may catch, usually for the purpose of preventing reversed motion; also, a bar or wheel (ratchet-wheel) provided with such teeth.
| α 1659 J. Leak Waterwks. 25 They make the peeces of Timber to come to the Saws by means of certain Toothed Wheels with a rochet. 1743 Freke in Phil. Trans. XLII. 558 A Wheel..notched round, which works as a Rotchet on a Spring Ketch. 1758 Fitzgerald ibid. L. 728 The outside rochet and outside wheel are fixed on the arbor. |
| β 1729 Desaguliers in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 204 To throw the Catch in again upon the Teeth of the Ratchet, and stop the whole Motion without Accidents. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 501 The click attached to the great wheel is laid hold of by the teeth of the ratchet. 1881 Greener Gun 9 The ratchet is wound up by means of the lever and cogs. |
b. pl. in same sense.
rare.
| 1721 Bailey, Ratchets, [in a Watch], are the small Teeth at the Bottom of the Barrel, which stop it, in winding up. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea iii. §165 The cogs on this wheel are cut and regulated to the rachets on that. |
2. A click or detent, catching into the teeth of a ratchet-wheel.
| 1846 Johnston tr. Beckmann's Hist. Invent., etc. (ed. 4) I. 11 These two wheels are connected by a ratchet or pall.., the larger ratchet-wheel is held stationary by a ratchet. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1881/2. |
† 3. (See
quot.)
Obs. rare—1.
| 1763 W. Lewis Phil. Comm. Arts 56 From this the wire is wound off upon a smaller cylinder, called a Rochett, placed on the spindle of a spinning wheel. |
4. = ratchet-knife.
| 1975 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11 June 3/1 Walking with the road with a ratchet (knife) in your waist, Johnny you're too bad. 1976 Daily Mirror 2 Apr. 20/2 Ratchet, knife. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
ratchet-arbor,
ratchet-bar,
ratchet-brace,
ratchet-catch,
ratchet-drill,
ratchet-jack,
ratchet-lever,
ratchet pinion,
ratchet rifling,
ratchet-ring,
ratchet screwdriver,
ratchet side,
ratchet-stop,
ratchet-tooth,
ratchet-wheel;
ratchet effect (see
quots. 1977);
ratchet knife, a type of knife popular in Jamaica.
| 1849 Noad Electricity 383 A pinion on the *ratchet-arbor gives motion to other simple wheel-work. |
| a 1824 A. Scott in Trans. Highl. Soc. (1824) VI. 34 So hinged that its lower end shall fall into the teeth of the same *ratchet-bar. |
| 1849 Weale Dict. Terms, *Ratchet-brace. 1868 Pall Mall G. 17 May 3 Saws, files, ratchet-braces. |
| a 1824 A. Scott in Trans. Highl. Soc. (1824) VI. 32 A ratchet-wheel of about 13 inches diameter, with *ratchet-catches. |
| 1846 Holtzapffel Turning II. 561 The *ratchet-drill..is made by cutting ratchet teeth in the drill shaft. |
| 1970 Times 13 Apr. 20/7 It appears that there has been a *ratchet effect in employment in the service industries. 1977 New Society 31 Mar. 643/2 One of the curiosities of political life is what you might call the ‘ratchet effect’. This is the process by which one party makes the running over an issue, and gradually winds the other (or others) along after it. 1977 Listener 31 Mar. 397/2 It was Sir Keith Joseph who drew attention to the ‘ratchet effect’ in politics, whereby the right seems to have acquiesced in the changes the left brings about. Curiously, in broadcasting matters, the ratchet effect has worked the other way: the Conservatives broke the BBC's monopoly in the Fifties.., and it has been the left that has acquiesced. 1979 Dædalus Spring 122 These efforts are illustrated by the rediscovery of the ‘ratchet effect’ theory, which simply begins with the common wisdom that prices go up more freely than they go down. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1882/2 *Ratchet-jack, etc. |
| 1971 Jrnl. Commonwealth Lit. Dec. 140 The DJE..passed by such terms as..*ratchet-knife, trouble. 1976 Boot & Thomas Jamaica 40/1 Just the sort of deft digital flourish you need to whip out the blade of a ratchet knife—which is a particular kind of nicely curved blade in a tapered handle, made in Germany for gutting fish. |
| 1846 Holtzapffel Turning II. 561 The *ratchet-lever in part resembles the ratchet drill. |
| 1779 in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 979 We must..except the *rochet pinions. |
| 1881 Greener Gun 177 The *ratchet rifling we do not consider nearly so good as either of the other forms. |
| 1779 Ramsden Descr. Engine (ii.) 11 Till the piece (j) is brought under the stop on the *ratchet-ring. |
| 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 80/1 The old and well-known Gay's Double-Action *Ratchet Screw Driver. 1979 S. Brett in Winter's Crimes 11 12 A ratchet screwdriver... Just the job for putting up shelves. |
| 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 192/1 The palls..are thrown into the *ratchet sides of the press. |
| 1867 J. Hogg Microsc. i. iii. 204 The teeth answer the triple purpose of thumb-milling, *ratchet-stop, and graduation. |
| 1735 in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 89 Their Distance depends on the *Ratchet-Teeth..in the Brass-Bottom. |
| 1777 Ramsden Descr. Engine (i.) 11 A *ratchet-wheel, having 60 teeth. ? 1790 J. Imison School of Arts I. 17 It is requisite to have a ratchet-wheel on the end of the axle..with a catch to fall into its teeth. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 220 A pawl or click is a necessary adjunct to a ratchet wheel. |
Hence
ˈratchetted a., provided with a ratchet;
ˈratchety a., resembling the movement of a ratchet, jerky.
| 1892 Star 14 Dec. 3/2 The ratchetted arm of the derrick..broke. 1885 The Money-Makers ix. 128 Raikes..poured out a ratchety but vehement panegyric. |
▪ II. ˈratchet, v. [f. the n.] a. intr. To move by means of a ratchet. Also
transf. and
fig.| 1881 Young Every Man his own Mechanic §270. 103 The angular borer turning clear around without stopping to ratchet. 1977 Time 3 Jan. 44/3 The signal, according to some radio operators who have heard it ratcheting over their headsets, sounds like a ‘buzzsaw’ or ‘the whirring of helicopter blades’. 1977 Rolling Stone 16 June 36/1 The movie director, age 34, spirals, ratchets, thrusts his chin like Mussolini. |
b. trans. To move (something)
up as by a ratchet.
Cf. ratchet effect s.v. ratchet n. 5.
| 1977 R. Jenkins Europe's Present Challenge & Future Opportunity (Jean Monnet Lect.) 8 Floating exchange rates transmit violent and sudden inflationary impulses... Each new impulse ratchets up the inflationary process. 1979 Daily Tel. 9 Aug. 2/7 We are quite clear that the union movement has not been responsible for ratcheting up inflation. |
[b.] For
def. read: To move (something) with, or as with, a ratchet. Freq.
const. up. (Earlier and later examples.)
| 1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow ii. 193 But the clock over the bar only clicks once, then presently again, ratcheting time minutewise into their past. 1981 Times 18 Apr. 11/1 The spring detent, a small spring which ratchets the teeth of a wheel. 1988 New Scientist 17 Mar. 29/1 He said: Maybe we are ratcheting ourselves to a new warmer climate. |
▪ III. ratchet obs. f. rochet.