(n.) A ratchet wheel, or notched bar, with which a pawl or click works.
Example Sentences:
(1) The only thing Michael Fabricant could reasonably be vice-chairman of is the steering committee of Nurse Ratched 's ward fete.
(2) At which point Nurse Ratched [Bailey named her after the character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ] runs along the corridor and is over my mother going: 'Bella you weren't dropped, were you?
Ratchet
Definition:
(n.) A pawl, click, or detent, for holding or propelling a ratchet wheel, or ratch, etc.
(n.) A mechanism composed of a ratchet wheel, or ratch, and pawl. See Ratchet wheel, below, and 2d Ratch.
Example Sentences:
(1) But similar accusations have been levelled by Anders Fogh Rasmussen , the secretary general of Nato, and by pro-shale officials in Romania and Lithuania , as cold war-style tensions have ratcheted.
(2) President Obama is to meet today with members of the National Governors Association – a prime opportunity for the president to ratchet up the pressure on Republicans to make a deal.
(3) Muller's ratchet is an important concept in population genetics.
(4) The prolonged estrogen requirement during the lag period is not truly discontinuous as previously suggested but rather can be satisfied by discontinuous pulses of estrogen in a ratchet-like fashion because of the stability of their effects.
(5) "There has been a ratcheting down of deterrence gestures by the US, and that has helped cool the situation a little," said John Delury, a North Korea analyst at Yonsei University in Seoul.
(6) Muller's ratchet could have significant implications for variability of disease severity during virus outbreaks, since genetic bottlenecks must often occur during respiratory droplet transmissions and during spread of low-yield RNA viruses from one body site to another (as with human immunodeficiency virus).
(7) North Korea again ratcheted up the tension in its nuclear standoff with the world by declaring yesterday that it would "weaponise" all of its plutonium and threatening its opponents with military action.
(8) The effect of this ratcheting motion is to subtract from the DNA molecule's forward movement, at each step, an amount which is proportional to its length.
(9) This sets up a ratchet effect each year and means that pay almost never goes down.
(10) Croatia has bused hundreds of migrants to its border with Hungary, ratcheting up tensions in Europe’s refugee crisis as police fired tear gas to drive back several hundred people trying to enter Slovenia .
(11) Especially because Trump suggested that he never settled cases and derided others who did settle them.” The looming move to the White House ratcheted up pressure, Tobias said.
(12) Once these kick in in earnest, they will sweep many species out of their habitability zones, and ratchet up the extinction rate still further.
(13) Speaking soon afterwards, Tony Blair said it was time to "ratchet up the international and diplomatic pressure" on Iran and demonstrate Tehran's "total isolation" on the issue.
(14) It would drive precious talent abroad and would be used by those in other banks to ratchet up their own salaries.
(15) Their voices will act like a ratchet, driving up ambition on climate.
(16) The report warned that the five-year program of cuts imposed by the Abbott government started gently but would “ratchet sharply upwards” in coming years.
(17) Ratcheting up the pressure ahead of tomorrow's Summit in Brussels, Hollande also said he would fight German attempts to create a federalised eurozone.
(18) The tension ratcheted up when the team decamped to Paris before the show, especially when American Vogue editor Anna Wintour swung by to cast her eye over the work.
(19) The Israeli government is reportedly fearful that any guidelines agreed in Paris would be turned into another UN resolution before Trump’s inauguration, and it has ratcheted up its rhetoric, presenting itself as the victim of an international conspiracy.
(20) On Tuesday, president Bashar al-Assad ratcheted up his own language by describing the crisis as "a real war" and pledged to do everything necessary to prevail.