cylinder

Etymology

From Middle French chilindre, cylindre, from Latin cylindrus, from Ancient Greek κύλινδρος (kúlindros), from κυλίνδω (kulíndō) "I roll or wallow" (intransitive). Doublet of calender.

noun

1. (geometry) A surface created by projecting a closed two-dimensional curve along an axis intersecting the plane of the curve.
   When the two-dimensional curve is a circle, the cylinder is called a circular cylinder. When the axis is perpendicular to the plane of the curve, the cylinder is called a right cylinder. In non-mathematical usage, both right and circular are usually implied.
2. (geometry) A solid figure bounded by a cylinder and two parallel planes intersecting the cylinder.
3. Any object in the form of a circular cylinder.
   A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. 1898, H. G. Wells, chapter 4, in The War of the Worlds
4. A cylindrical cavity or chamber in a mechanism, such as the counterpart to a piston found in a piston-driven engine.
5. (automotive) The space in which a piston travels inside a reciprocating engine or pump.
6. A container in the form of a cylinder with rounded ends for storing pressurized gas; a gas cylinder.
7. An early form of phonograph recording, made on a wax cylinder.
8. The part of a revolver that contains chambers for the cartridges.
9. (computing) The corresponding tracks on a vertical arrangement of disks in a disk drive considered as a unit of data capacity.

verb

1. (transitive) To calender; to press (paper, etc.) between rollers to make it glossy.