See Also: trillium(medicine)
trillium(dictionary)
trillium(encyclopedia)
Trillium Hospital(health)
Trillium Health Centre(health)

ratchet (iou) and trillium (iou)


ratchet (iou)



ratchet noun & verb. Also (earlier) rochet. M17.
[French rochet (orig.) blunt lancehead, (later) bobbin, spool, ratchet (wheel), corresp. to or partly from Italian rocchetto spool, ratchet, dim. from Proto-Romance, rel. to base of ROCK noun2. Later assim. to synon. RATCH noun1.]
A. noun.
sing. & (rare) in pl. A set of angled teeth on the edge of a bar or wheel in which a device (as a cog, tooth, etc.) engages to prevent reversed motion. Freq. attrib. M17.
ratchet effect an effect by which a process, policy, cost, etc., continues or increases without any compensatory movement in the opposite direction, so that it comes to be perceived as irreversible.
A bar or wheel (more fully ratchet-wheel) provided with such teeth. E18.
A click or detent engaging in the ratchet of a wheel. M19.
In full ratchet-knife. A type of knife with a curved blade. W. Indies. L20.
b. verb.
verb trans. Provide with a ratchet; make into a ratchet. L19.
verb intrans. & trans. Move (as) by means of a ratchet. L19.
Daily Telegraph The union movement has not been responsible for ratcheting up inflation.
ratchety adjective resembling the movement of a ratchet, jerky M19.

trillium (iou)



trillium noun. M19.
[mod. Latin (see below), app. alt. of Swedish trilling triplet, with ref. to the parts of the plant being in threes.]
Any of various N. American plants of the genus Trillium, of the lily family, related to herb Paris but bearing a whorl of three leaves at the summit of the stem and in the middle a solitary flower with three white or brightly coloured petals. Also called wake-robin.