Advertisement
Advertisement
circuit breaker
[ sur-kit brey-ker ]
noun
- Also called breaker. Electricity. a device for interrupting an electric circuit to prevent excessive current, as that caused by a short circuit, from damaging the apparatus in the circuit or from causing a fire.
- Also called trad·ing halt [trey, -ding hawlt] or trading curb. Stock Exchange. a temporary halt in trading automatically imposed when stock prices reach a predetermined level, as to check panic selling.
- a lockdown or set of tight restrictions imposed for a fixed, usually short period to halt the spread of a highly transmissible infection (often used attributively):
Circuit breakers only succeed if additional measures are taken, such as contact tracing and increased testing.
- Australia, New Zealand. an activity serving to relieve or distract from stresses that might otherwise overwhelm:
Sometimes a day out of the office is the best circuit breaker after a tense week.
- any property-tax relief measure that reduces or limits property taxes for certain eligible taxpayers, as those with low income or the elderly.
circuit breaker
- A switch that automatically interrupts the flow of electric current if the current exceeds a preset limit, measured in amperes. Circuit breakers are used most often as a safety precaution where excessive current through a circuit could be hazardous. Unlike fuses, they can usually be reset and reused.
Discover More
Word History and Origins
Origin of circuit breaker1
Discover More
Example Sentences
On Thursday night, the cluster of coronavirus cases at a hotel quarantine site near the Melbourne airport grew to 13 and Andrews was forced to mandate a five-day lockdown, a “short, sharp circuit breaker” as he called it.
At the very least, we need circuit breakers at the state and city level in the highest transmission states.
A circuit breaker with an off setting is no good at all if it doesn’t have an honest on as well.
She argues that this approach must change, and that circuit breakers offer the potential to do enormous good with little harm.
The spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also cited a recent example—one involving an audio post suggesting right-wing activists run over protesters with cars—of the circuit breaker working.
Some function of his brain acted as a psi-circuit breaker, shutting off awareness before his mind could be blasted.
A circuit-breaker may be set so as to open its connections in one or more seconds after a certain current begins to flow.
A circuit-breaker with its contacts under oil offers a much smaller opportunity than a fuse for the maintenance of an arc.
The accompanying cut shows the combination of battery B, the circuit-breaker, and the rod mounted upon the box.
With motors an automatic circuit breaker, disconnecting all wires of the circuit, may serve as both switch and cut-out.
Advertisement
Word of the Day
[fur-kin ]
Meaning and examplesStart each day with the Word of the Day in your inbox!
By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse