draw-bar
(ˈdrɔːbɑːr)
1. The bar that bears the draw-links or couplings by which railway carriages and trucks are connected in a train. Also of other vehicles.
| 1839 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. XXIV. 156 The bumpers or elastic cushions are to be attached..to the front and rear draw-bar. 1861 Times 1 June, The draw-bar of one of the trucks broke, and the draw-spring fell on the rails. 1889 Pall Mall G. 27 Dec. 8/2 Breaking a coupling chain or a drawbar hook. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 30 Mar. 2/1 Two omnibuses..and four light wagons, all..connected by spring draw-bars. 1950 Engineering 17 Nov. 388/3 On wet heavy land, a tractor with rubber tyres..will give a drawbar performance. 1954 Gloss. Terms Agric. Mach. (B.S.I.) 8 Drawbar, a member fitted to a tractor for the attachment of hauled implements. |
2. A bar in a fence that can be drawn out. orig. U.S.
| 1670 Groton Rec. (1880) 36 A gat or a sufficient pair of draw barrs to [be] Kept and maintained at the end [of] Natha[niel] Lawrences field. 1811 Massachusetts Spy 3 Apr. (Th.), There were a pair of draw bars about twelve or fifteen yards from [his] door. 1836 Southern Lit. Messenger II. 162 On every side I was met by gates, drawbars, and gaps. 1884 R. Jefferies Life of Fields 85 The gates beside the lane were not gates at all, but double draw-bars framed together. |
3. Glass-making. (See quot. 1948.)
| 1948 Amer. Ceramic Soc. Bull. XXVII. 356/1 Draw bar, submerged clay block used to define the position of sheet glass during drawing. 1970 Glass Technol. XI. 95a, The refractory draw bar contains sealed cavities providing buoyancy in molten glass. |
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Add: 4. (Usu. as one word.) Any of a number of bars above the keyboard of some electronic organs, which may be pulled out to control the harmonic tone.
| 1935 Diapason 1 May 3/1 There are above the upper manual nine draw bars of one group which are called harmonic controls. 1937 Wireless World 13 Aug. 135/1 Four harmonic controllers, each consisting of nine drawbars, are provided. 1953 R. L. Eby Electronic Organs v. 97/2 By adjustment of these drawbars or preset keys, the player can vary the tone color at will. 1977 Contemporary Keyboard III. v. 47/2 The early (A) model Hammond organ had..a drawbar system that facilitated the production of many different timbres. 1984 Sounds 1 Dec. 61/2 Your basic patch can be drastically altered by using an extraordinary ‘drawbar’ facility that rejigs the amplitude of your patch (up to nine times) with respect to nine different pitches that can be selected. |