retarder
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.75 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A device for slowing down large trucks, lorries, buses, shunted railway wagons.
Example Sentences
- "The substance acted as a retarder to the chemical reaction because it radically changed the pH."
- "Why is retarder used in dope when the dope is being sprayed in humid conditions? The retarder slows the drying of the dope and keeps it from blushing."
- "The hump cabin and its relay room are at the summit of the hump on the right-hand side, and the control tower is on the centre line of the yard between the primary and secondary retarders."
- "[...] unlike the latest British yards, Gremberg has only primary retarders, manually operated, a method that the hump operators apparently prefer to electro-pneumatic control because they can grade the braking pressure more accurately by feel."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂-d-o- Proto-Italic *tardo- Latin tardus Latin retardōbor. Anglo-Norman retarderbor. Middle English retarden English retard English -er English retarder From retard + -er.