MAINSPRING

Mainspring

A mainspring is a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon used as a power source in mechanical watches, some clocks, and other clockwork mechanisms. Winding the timepiece, by turning a knob or key, stores energy in the mainspring by twisting the spiral tighter. The force of the mainspring then turns the clock's wheels as it unwinds, until the next winding is needed. The adjectives wind-up and spring-wound refer to mechanisms powered by mainsprings, which also include kitchen timers, music boxes, wind-up toys and clockwork radios.

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mainspring

Noun

  1. The principal spring of a clockwork mechanism, that drives it by uncoiling.
  2. The most important reason for something.
    My daughter is the mainspring of my life.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: mainspring
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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