Usually means: Mechanism allowing movement in increments.
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We found 40 dictionaries that define the word ratchet:

General (26 matching dictionaries)
  1. ratchet: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
  2. ratchet: Merriam-Webster
  3. ratchet: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  4. ratchet: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  5. ratchet: Collins English Dictionary
  6. ratchet: Vocabulary.com
  7. Ratchet, ratchet: Wordnik
  8. ratchet: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  9. ratchet: Wiktionary
  10. ratchet: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  11. ratchet: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  12. ratchet: Infoplease Dictionary
  13. Ratchet, ratchet: Dictionary.com
  14. ratchet (n.): Online Etymology Dictionary
  15. ratchet: Cambridge Essential American English Dictionary
  16. Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank), Ratchet (album), Ratchet (device), Ratchet (instrument), Ratchet (slang), Ratchet (song), Ratchet: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
  17. Ratchet: Online Plain Text English Dictionary
  18. ratchet: Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
  19. ratchet: Rhymezone
  20. Ratchet: AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary
  21. ratchet: Webster's 1828 Dictionary
  22. ratchet: FreeDictionary.org
  23. ratchet: Mnemonic Dictionary
  24. ratchet: TheFreeDictionary.com

Art (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary (No longer online)

Business (3 matching dictionaries)
  1. Ratchet: bizterms.net
  2. Construction Term Glossary (No longer online)
  3. BusinessDictionary.com (No longer online)

Computing (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Ratchet (device), ratchet: Encyclopedia

Medicine (2 matching dictionaries)
  1. online medical dictionary (No longer online)
  2. ratchet: Medical dictionary

Miscellaneous (2 matching dictionaries)
  1. RATCHET: Acronym Finder
  2. AbbreviationZ (No longer online)

Slang (2 matching dictionaries)
  1. ratchet, ratchet, ratchet: Green’s Dictionary of Slang
  2. Ratchet, ratchet: Urban Dictionary

Sports (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Ratchet: Bicycle Glossary

Tech (2 matching dictionaries)
  1. AUTOMOTIVE TERMS (No longer online)
  2. SeaTalk Dictionary of English Nautical Language (No longer online)

(Note: See ratcheting as well.)

Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
noun:  A pawl, click, or detent for holding or propelling a ratchet wheel, or ratch, etc.
noun:  A mechanism composed of a ratchet wheel, or ratch and pawl.
noun:  A ratchet wrench.
noun:  (by extension) A procedure or regulation that goes in one direction, usually up.
noun:  A noisemaker or musical instrument where sound is generated by a board striking against a rotating gear.
verb:  (transitive) To cause to become incremented or decremented.
verb:  (intransitive) To increment or decrement.
adjective:  (US, slang) Ghetto; unseemly, indecorous.
noun:  (finance) Ellipsis of full ratchet. [(finance) An antidilution approach by which, if a subsequent round of funding would decrease an investor's equity ownership percentage, the investor is given additional shares to maintain the former percentage.]

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    gunmetal,     charcoal,     graphite,     pewter,     smoke, more...



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