Eccentric

a. [N. Lat. eccentricus, Gr. ἔκ-κεντρος, out of the center, eccentric, from ἐκ, out of, and κέντρον, Lat. centrum, center; Fr. excentrique.]

1Sense 1. Deviating or departing from the center, or from the line of a circle; as, an eccentric or elliptical orbit.

2Sense 2. Pertaining to eccentricity or to an eccentric; as, the eccentric anomaly of a planet; the eccentric rod in a steam-engine.

3Sense 3. Not having the same center;—said of circles and spheres which, though coinciding, either in whole or in part, as to area or volume, have not the same center;—opposed to concentric.

4Sense 4. Not coincident as to motive or end.

His own ends, which must needs be often eccentric to those of his master. Bacon.

5Sense 5. Deviating from stated methods, usual practice, or established forms or laws; deviating from an appointed sphere or way; departing from the usual course; irregular; anomalous; odd; as, eccentric conduct.

He shines eccentric, like a comet’s blaze. Savage.

Eccentric chuck (Mach.), a lathe-chuck so constructed that the work held by it may be altered as to its center of motion, so as to produce combinations of eccentric circles. — Eccentric gear, the whole apparatus of rod, strap, and other parts, by which the motion of an eccentric is transmitted, as in the steam-engine. — Eccentric hook or gab, a hook-shaped journal-box on the end of an eccentric rod, opposite the strap. See V-HOOK. — Eccentric rod, the rod that connects an eccentric strap with any part to be actuated by the eccentric. — Eccentric strap, the ring, operating as a journal-box, that encircles and receives motion from an eccentric.

Synonyms—Irregular; anomalous; singular; odd; particular; strange; whimsical.

n. 1. A circle not having the same center as another contained in some measure within the first. Bacon.

2Sense 2. One who, or that which, deviates from regularity; an anomalous or irregular person or thing.

3Sense 3. (Astron.) (a.) The supposed circular orbit of a planet about the earth, but with the earth not in its center, in the Ptolemaic system. (b.) A circle described about the center of an elliptical orbit, with half the major axis for radius. Hutton.

4Sense 4. (Mech.) A wheel or disk, having its axis of revolution out of its center of figure, used for obtaining a reciprocating or alternate motion from a circular one, especially in the valve-gear of rotative steam-engines; an eccentric wheel. The motion derived is precisely that of a crank having the same throw.

Fore-eccentric, the eccentric that imparts a forward motion to the valve-gear and the engine. — Back-eccentric, the eccentric that reverses or backs the valve-gear and the engine.