gimbal

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WORDNET DICTIONARY

Noun gimbal has 1 sense

gimbal(n = noun.artifact) - an appliance that allows an object (such as a ship's compass) to remain horizontal even as its support tips;

CIDE DICTIONARY

gimbal, n. [See Gimmal, n.].

A contrivance for permitting a body to incline freely in all directions, or for suspending anything, as a barometer, ship's compass, chronometer, etc., so that it will remain plumb, or level, when its support is tipped, as by the rolling of a ship. It consists of a ring in which the body can turn on an axis through a diameter of the ring, while the ring itself is so pivoted to its support that it can turn about a diameter at right angles to the first. [1913 Webster]

Gimbal joint (Mach.), a universal joint embodying the principle of the gimbal. -- Gimbal ring, a single gimbal, as that by which the cockeye of the upper millstone is supported on the spindle.