[a. F. friction, ad. L. frictiōn-em, n. of action from fricāre to rub.]
1. The action of chafing or rubbing (the body or limbs). (Formerly much used in medical treatment.) Cf. FRICATION.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxiv. (1887), 122. Gouerning the body after exercise, and his frictions to rubbe it and chafe it.
1619. Massinger, Picture, IV. ii.
| If he but hear a coach, the fomentation, | |
| The friction with fumigation, cannot save him | |
| From the chine-evil. |
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 35. The Solids, which must be treated in a manner proper to themselves, by Frictions, Exercise of the Body, the Cold Bath, and the like.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 369. Observations on the Effects of Acetic Ether applied by Friction in Rheumatic Complaints, by G. Martin.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., I. vi. This is sad news to a disconsolate discerning Public, hoping to have got off by some Morrison’s Pill, some Saint-John’s corrosive mixture and perhaps a little blistery friction on the back!
1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, X. v. 388. His brain will be in still finer order if the breakfast has been preceded by a cold bath, with friction and a little exercise.
2. The rubbing of one body against another; attrition.
1704. Newton, Opticks, III. i. (1721), 314. Whether that agitation be made by Heat, or by Friction, or Percussion, or Putrefaction, or by any vital Motion, or any other Cause?
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 481. The rocks below, in some places, are worn many feet deep by the constant friction of the water.
a. 1800. Cowper, Mischievous Bull, iii.
| The sheep here smooths the knotted thorn, | |
| With frictions of her fleece; | |
| And here I wander eve and morn, | |
| Like her a friend to peace. |
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xviii. (1852), 409. A light was procured by rubbing a blunt-pointed stick in a groove made in another, as if in order to deepen it, until by the friction the dust was ignited.
3. Physics and Mech. The resistance which any body meets with in moving over another body.
Angle of friction, the maximum slope at which one body will rest upon another without sliding down. Centre of friction: see CENTRE 16. Coefficient of friction, the ratio between the force necessary to move one surface horizontally over another and the pressure between the two surfaces; cf. COEFFICIENT sb. 2 b. Friction at rest, the amount of friction between two touching bodies that are relatively at rest. Friction of motion, ‘the power required to keep a moving body in motion’ (Lockwood). Friction of repose, ‘the power necessary to set a body moving from a state of quiescence’ (Lockwood).
1722. Cheselden, Anat. vii. (ed. 2), 39. This Contrivance is always found necessary by Mechanicks, where the Friction of the Joynts of any of their Machines is great.
1755. Johnson, Friction, the resistance in machines caused by the motion of one body upon another.
1822. Imison, Elements of Science and Art, I. 57. Polished substances, as might be expected, have less friction than rough ones.
1859. Rankine, Steam Engine, § 13. That excess, however, of the friction of rest over the friction of motion, is instantly destroyed by a slight vibration; so that the friction of motion is alone to be taken into account as causing continuous loss of work.
1868. E. J. Routh, Rigid Dynamics, 110. When one part of a body rests on another a force is called into play tending to prevent slipping. This force is called friction.
1875. Nystrom, Elem. Mech., 88. Rolling-friction is the resistance of uneven surfaces rolling on one another, like that of a wheel rolling on a road.
4. fig.; esp. of the jarring or conflict of unlike opinions, temperaments, etc.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. iii. The souls of connoisseurs themselves, by long friction and incumbition, have the happiness, at length, to get all be-virtu’d, be-pictured, be-butterflied, and befiddled.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 531. When memory began to lay in her stores, their frictions among one another struck out the first sparkles of judgment and forecast.
1792. Mad. D’Arblay, Lett. to A. Young, 18 June. You find by a little approximation and friction of tempers and things that they are mortal.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xvi. (1876), 242. Day after day vessels from the Baltic came sailing up the bay, and the fears of the people, exposed to so continual a friction, began to wear out.
1875. H. James, R. Hudson, i. 15. With his blooming complexion and his serene gray eye, he felt the friction of existence more than was suspected.
1884. J. Hall, Chr. Home, 203. The obedience is to be cheerful, to be rendered not by constraint, but willingly. Friction [between parent and child] is out of the question.
5. Comb., chiefly Mech., as friction-ball, one of the balls used to lessen the friction of bearings, etc.; friction-block, a block that is pressed against a revolving body to arrest its motion by friction; friction-brake, see quots.: also, a brake operating by means of friction; friction-breccia Geol. = fault-rock (see FAULT 11); friction-clutch, -cone, -coupling, -disc, contrivances for transmitting motion by frictional contact; friction-fire, fire obtained by means of a fire-drill; friction-fremitus Path. = friction-sound; friction-fuse = friction-tube; friction-gear, -gearing, gear or gearing for transmitting motion by frictional contact; friction-machine (see quot. 1884); friction-match, a match that ignites by friction; friction-powder (see quot.); friction-primer, the name used in the U.S. for friction-tube; friction-roller, (a) a roller placed so as to lessen the friction of anything passing over it; (b) see quot. 1888; friction-sound Path. (see quot.); friction-tight a., fitting so tightly that the desired amount of friction is obtained; friction-tube (see quots.); friction-wheel, (a) see friction-roller; (b) see quot. 1888.
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, etc., *Friction Balls. A contrivance for moving heavy weights around a centre.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 915–6. *Friction-brake. A form of dynamometer invented by Prony, in which a pair of *friction-blocks are screwed to a journal rotating at a given speed, and tightened to such an extent that the unweighted lever will remain horizontal between the studs.
1879. Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. § 436. White’s friction brake measures the amount of work actually performed in any time by an engine or other ‘prime mover,’ by allowing it during the time of trial to waste all its work on friction.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 357/1. Friction Brake. 2. A measurer of the lubricity of oils.
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, etc., *Friction Clutch. A mode of putting machinery in and out of gear, when the velocity of the parts is very great. Ibid., *Friction Cones. a method of disengaging and re-engaging machinery, and that without the sudden jolts to which some other modes of coupling subject it to.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., *Friction Disc.—A contrivance similar in principle to cone gear, but in which frictional surfaces are substituted for toothed gearing.
1865. E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 257. In the ceremony of later times the flint and steel has superseded the ancient *friction-fire.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med. (ed. 3), II. 6–7. The presence of any cardiac thrill or pericardial *friction-fremitus.
1879. Khory, Princ. Med., 47. Friction fremitus may be felt while the patient is taking deep breath.
1860. Illustr. Lond. News, 25 Feb., 191/2. The old plan of a touch-hole on the top is disused, and the *friction-fuse substituted.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 916/2. *Friction-gear. Wheels which act upon each other by the adhesion of their contacting surface, instead of by cogs, bands, or chains.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., Friction Gearing. Gearing, whose driving force is produced by the friction only of the peripheries of the wheels.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 478. An isolated electric pile, or a *friction machine of Nairn, positive and negative, and also isolated.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 357/2. Friction Machine. An electric machine, generating electricity by contact with amalgamated silk.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Montaigne, Wks. (Bohn), I. 337. They [the men of the senses] believe that mustard bites the tongue, that pepper is hot, *friction-matches incendiary, revolvers are to be avoided, and suspenders hold up pantaloons.
1864. Webster, *Friction powder, a composition of chlorate of potash and antimony, which readily ignites by friction.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 916/2. *Friction-primer. A small brass tube filled with gunpowder, and having a smaller tube containing friction composition inserted at right angles near the top.
1703. Wollaston, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIII. 150. *Friction-rollers were applied to take off some of the weight.
1875. R. F. Martin, trans. Havrez’s Winding Mach., 91. The movement of this valve is produced by a cam with bosses, by means of a lever and a friction-roller.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., Friction Rollers, or Friction Wheels.—Small rollers which revolve in bearings, and sustain an axle in the depression formed by the contiguity of the upper portion of their peripheries.
1860. R. Fowler, Med. Voc., *Friction sound. The auscultatory sound heard when the pleuræ or pericardium are roughened by inflammation and effused lymph.
1864. Webster, *Friction tube, (Mil.), a tube used for firing cannon by means of friction.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Friction-tube … ignition is caused by the friction on sudden withdrawal of a small horizontal metal bar from the detonating priming in the head of the tube.
1772. Phil. Trans., LXXII. 476. Their axes (the ends of which were of gold allayed with copper) rested on *friction-wheels of four inches diameter, each end on two friction-wheels, which wheels were balanced with great care.
1826. J. Adamson, Rail-roads, 23. This rope was, at the upper end of the plane, bent round a large fixed pulley or friction-wheel, the resistance to the revolution of which, independent of the friction produced by its own weight, we may assume as increasing in proportion to the tension of the rope.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., Friction Wheel.—Any wheel which drives or is driven by friction, as when contact only takes place between smooth or grooved surfaces without the intervention of teeth.
