Dictionary Definition
fin
Noun
1 the cardinal number that is the sum of four and
one [syn: five, 5, V, cinque, quint, quintet, fivesome, quintuplet, pentad, Phoebe, Little
Phoebe]
2 one of a pair of decorations projecting above
the rear fenders of an automobile [syn: tail fin,
tailfin]
3 one of a set of parallel slats in a door or
window to admit air and reject rain [syn: louver, louvre]
4 a shoe for swimming; the paddle-like front is
an aid in swimming (especially underwater) [syn: flipper, flippers, fins]
5 a stabilizer that resembles the fins of a
fish
6 organ of locomotion and balance in fishes and
some other aquatic animals
Verb
1 equip (a car) with fins
2 propel oneself through the water in a finning
motion
3 show the fins above the water while swimming;
"The sharks were finning near the surface" [syn: break water]
[also: finning, finned]
User Contributed Dictionary
see Fin
English
Pronunciation
- fĭn, /fɪn/, /fIn/
-
- Homophones: Finn
- Rhymes: -ɪn
- Homophones: Finn
Noun
- One of the appendages of a fish, used to propel itself and to manoeuvre/maneuver.
- A similar appendage of a cetacean or other marine animal.
- A thin, rigid component of an aircraft, extending from the fuselage and used to stabilise and steer the aircraft.
- A similar structure on the tail of a bomb, used to help keep it on course.
- A hairstyle, resembling the fin of a fish, in which the hair is combed and set into a vertical ridge along the top of the head from about the crown to the forehead.
- A device worn by divers and swimmers on their feet.
- An extending part on a surface of a radiator, engine, heatsink, etc., used to facilitate cooling.
- (U.S. slang) A five-dollar bill
Synonyms
- i-c appendange of a fish
- flipper (of mammals)
- i-c aircraft component
- i-c of a bomb vane
- i-c hairstyle
- i-c divece worn by divers flipper
Translations
appendage of a fish
appendage of a cetacean or other marine animal
aircraft component
of a bomb
- Dutch: vin
- French: empennage
- Italian: impennaggio
- Russian: стабилизатор
hairstyle
- Norwegian: hanekam
device used by divers
- Danish: finne
- Dutch: zwemvlies (usually in plural form: zwemvliezen)
- Finnish: uimaräpylä (usually in plural form: uimaräpylät)
- Italian: pinna
- Norwegian: svømmeføtter, finner
- Russian: ласт (last) (usually used in a plural form ласты, lásty)
- Spanish: aleta
- Swedish: simfötter
Derived terms
Bambara
Adjective
finSynonyms
Crimean Tatar
Adjective
finReferences
Useinov-Mireev 2002}}Danish
Adjective
finFrench
Pronunciation
Extensive Definition
thumb|200px|Arrow fletches are a type of fin.A fin is a surface
used to produce lift and
thrust or to steer while
traveling in water, air,
or other fluid media. The
first use of the word was for the
limbs of fish, but has
been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made
devices.
The foremost use of fins is to ensure the
directional stability of an object moving through a fluid such as
water or air and may be seen in the use of fletching on arrows and
fins at the rear of some missiles, rockets, self-propelled torpedoes, and kinetic energy
penetrators. They are typically "planar" (shaped like small
wings), although grid fins are
sometimes used in specialized cases.
Moving fins may be used to propel an object
through lateral thrust (see mechanics).
Examples of fin use:
- Propellers usually have a number of fins that work to translate torquing force to lateral thrust, thus propelling a ship. These are also called blades. In the case of high power application it is important to avoid cavitation, caused by excessive negative pressure, as this can cause noise, a loss of power, and damage to the propeller.
- For scuba divers' fins, see swimfin.
- In surfing, a skeg is a stabilizing fin located at the rear of the surfboard. A skeg has the effect of keeping the board moving forward in a controlled manner. The surfboard fin has undergone numerous phases of development.
- Constructions of the same purpose as fins (producing thrust, but working in gaseous media) instead are usually called wings or stabilizers with aerodynamics as the governing science. The exception to this is the vertical surface of an aircraft to which the rudder is attached - this is still usually called a fin but is (more formally) called a vertical stabilizer.
- the fin of a rocket uses pressure on both sides of the fin to create a more stable flight in a rocket
fin in German: Finne (Wassersport)
fin in French: Nageoire
fin in Ido: Floso
fin in Lithuanian: Pelekas
fin in Dutch: Vin
fin in Ukrainian: Плавець
fin in Spanish: aleta
fin in Portuguese: barbatana
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Australian crawl, C, C-note, G, G-note, Little Phoebe, Pentateuch, Phoebe, V, aquaplaning, aquatics, backstroke, balneation, bathe, bathing, breaststroke, buck, butterfly, cartwheel, cent, century, cinque, copper, crawl, dime, diving, dog paddle, dollar, dollar bill, fifty cents,
fish, fishtail, five, five bucks, five cents, five
dollars, five hundred dollars, five-dollar bill,
five-hundred-dollar bill, five-spot, fiver, fivesome, flapper, flipper, floating, four bits, frogskin, grand, half G, half a C, half
dollar, half grand, hundred-dollar bill, iron man, mill, mullet, natation, nickel, penny, pentachord, pentad, pentagon, pentagram, pentahedron, pentameter, pentapody, pentarchy, pentastich, pentathlon, quarter, quincunx, quint, quintet, quintuplet, red cent,
sawbuck, sidestroke, silver dollar,
skin, smacker, surfboarding, surfing, swim, swimming, ten cents, ten-spot,
tenner, thousand dollars,
thousand-dollar bill, treading water, twenty-dollar bill,
twenty-five cents, two bits, two-dollar bill, two-spot, wading, waterskiing, yard