- 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.
Definition
[ n.]