gimbal

1 of 2

noun

gim·bal ˈgim-bəl

ˈjim-

: a device that permits a body to incline freely in any direction or suspends it so that it will remain level when its support is tipped

—usually used in plural

called also gimbal ring

gimbal

2 of 2

verb

gimballed or gimbaled; gimballing or gimbaling

transitive verb

: to provide with or support on gimbals

Did you know?

One place you might encounter gimbals is on a ship, where they are used to keep compasses and other things level with the horizon in contrast to the pitch and roll of the vessel at sea. The word gimbal is an alteration of "gemel," a word for a type of finger-ring popular in the 16th century that could be divided into two separate rings. The word comes from Anglo-French gemel ("twin"), which in turn comes from Latin gemellus, a diminutive of "geminus," the Latin word for "twin."

Examples of gimbal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Smartphone gimbals are a dime a dozen these days, but Insta360 Flow manages to stand out a bit thanks to its unique and clever design that make the gimbal easier to use than others. —

Ben Sin, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023 Professional videographers filmed the searches using gimbals, GoPros, and drones. —

Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023 While gimbals are active systems for controlling differential thrust, an aerospike engine use a passive process called pressure injection. —

Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 30 June 2023 There’s also a mode switch button, to change flying modes, and a gimbal tilt slider to tilt the camera gimbal. —

Christian De Looper, BGR, 25 Aug. 2022 Passive differential thrust means that the rocket’s plume can be manipulated without needing any of the hefty gimbals seen on bell-nozzle rockets. —

Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 30 June 2023 Duke Robotics solved that recoil problem by developing a real-time robotic gimbal with six degrees of freedom that can absorb the shockwave of each gunshot and can stabilize the weapon regardless of environmental conditions or the drone platform it's mounted on. —

Jeremy Hsu, Discover Magazine, 18 Aug. 2017 The obvious competitor for the Flow is DJI’s $159 Osmo Mobile 6 lineup of smartphone gimbals. —

Jon Porter, The Verge, 29 Mar. 2023 This is often accomplished by mounting the laser on a gimbal. —

IEEE Spectrum, 29 May 2023

Verb

Much of what has made DJI gimbals great remains in the Osmo Mobile 3, but the company made this device more compact and more affordable at $119. —

Valentina Palladino and Jeff Dunn, Ars Technica, 20 Nov. 2019 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gimbal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.