Gy -abbr

  1. gray

(variant of jibe)

  1. to shift suddenly and forcibly from one side to the other used of a fore-and-aft sail
  2. to change a vessel's course when sailing with the wind so that as the stern passes through the eye of the wind the boom swings to the opposite side
  3. to cause to jibe
  4. to be in accord : agree

gym ['jim] -n

  1. gymnasium
  2. physical education
  3. a usu. metal frame supporting an assortment of outdoor play equipment (as a swing, seesaw, and rings)

gym·kha·na [jim-'kä-nə, -'ka-] -n

  1. : a meet featuring sports contests or athletic skills: as
  2. competitive games on horseback
  3. a timed contest for automobiles featuring a series of events designed to test driving skill

gym·na·si·um [sense 1 jim-'nā-zē-əm, -zhəm; sense 2 usu gim-'nä-zē-əm] -n

  1. a large room used for various indoor sports (as basketball or boxing) and usu. equipped with gymnastic apparatus
  2. a building (as on a college campus) containing space and equipment for various indoor sports activities and usu. including spectator accommodations, locker and shower rooms, offices, classrooms, and a swimming pool
  3. a European secondary school that prepares students for the university

gym·nast ['jim-,nast, -nəst] -n

  1. a person trained in gymnastics

gym·nas·tic [jim-'nas-tik] -adj, adv

  1. of or relating to gymnastics : athletic

gymnastic -n

  1. physical exercises designed to develop strength and coordination
  2. a competitive sport in which individuals perform optional and prescribed acrobatic feats mostly on special apparatus in order to demonstrate strength, balance, and body control
  3. an exercise in intellectual or artistic dexterity
    • my earlier philosophic study had been an intellectual gymnastic -- John Dewey
    • mental gymnastic s
  4. a physical feat or contortion
    • the gymnastic s necessary for the killer to have swung from the fire escape -- E. D. Radin

gym·nos·o·phist [jim-'nä-sə-fist] -n

  1. any of a sect of ascetics in ancient India who went naked and practiced meditation

gym·no·sperm ['jim-nə-,spərm] -n, adj

  1. any of a group of vascular plants that produce naked seeds not enclosed in an ovary, that were formerly considered a class (Gymnospermae) of seed plants, but that are now considered polyphyletic in origin and divided into several extinct divisions and four divisions with surviving members typified by the cycadophytes, conifers, ginkgo, and ephedras

gyn -abbr

  1. gynecology

gyn- -comb form

  1. female reproductive organ : ovary
    • gyno phore

gy·nae·col·o·gy [,gī-nə-'kä-lə-jē, ,ji-] -n, adj

(variant of gynecology)

  1. a branch of medicine that deals with the diseases and routine physical care of the reproductive system of women

gyn·an·dro·morph [,gīn-'an-drə-,mȯrf, ,jin-] -n, adj

  1. an abnormal individual exhibiting characters of both sexes in various parts of the body : a sexual mosaic

gyn·an·drous [,gīn-'an-drəs, ,jin-] -adj

  1. having the androecium and gynoecium united in a column

gynec- -comb form

  1. woman
    • gyneco logy

gy·ne·coc·ra·cy [,gī-ni-'kä-krə-sē, ,ji-] -n, adj

  1. political supremacy of women

gy·ne·coid ['gī-ni-,kȯid, 'ji-] -adj

  1. typical or characteristic of the human female
    • gynecoid pelvis

gy·ne·col·o·gy [,gī-nə-'kä-lə-jē, ,ji-] -n, adj

  1. a branch of medicine that deals with the diseases and routine physical care of the reproductive system of women

gy·neco·mas·tia [,gī-nə-kō-'mas-tē-ə] -n

  1. excessive development of the breast in the male

gy·no·cen·tric [,gī-nə-'sen-trik] -adj

  1. dominated by or emphasizing feminine interests or a feminine point of view

gy·noe·ci·um [ji-'nē-shē-əm, gī-, -sē-] -n

  1. the aggregate of carpels or pistils in a flower

gy·no·gen·e·sis [,gī-nə-'je-nə-səs] -n, adj

  1. development in which the embryo contains only maternal chromosomes due to activation of an egg by a sperm that degenerates without fusing with the egg nucleus

gy·no·phore ['gī-nə-,fȯr, 'ji-] -n

  1. a prolongation of the receptacle (as in a caper flower) with the gynoecium at its apex

gyp ['jip] -n

  1. a college servant
  2. cheat, swindler
  3. fraud, swindle
  4. cheat

gyp·se·ous ['jip-sē-əs] -adj

  1. resembling, containing, or consisting of gypsum
    • gypseous clay loam

gyp·soph·i·la [jip-'sä-fə-lə] -n

  1. any of a large genus ( Gypsophila) of Old World herbs of the pink family having small delicate usu. paniculate flowers

gyp·sum ['jip-səm] -n

  1. a widely distributed mineral consisting of hydrous calcium sulfate that is used esp. as a soil amendment and in making plaster of paris
  2. drywall

gyp·sy ['jip-sē] -vi

  1. to live or roam like a Gypsy

Gyp·sy ['jip-sē] -n

  1. a member of a traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India and now live chiefly in south and southwest Asia, Europe, and No. America
  2. romany
  3. one that resembles a Gypsy
  4. wanderer

gypsy cab -n

  1. a taxicab licensed only to answer calls
  2. such a cab that cruises in search of passengers illegally

gypsy moth -n

  1. an Old World tussock moth ( Lymantria dispar) that was introduced about 1869 into the U.S. and has a grayish-brown mottled hairy caterpillar which is a destructive defoliator of many trees

gyr- -comb form

  1. ring : circle : spiral
    • gyro magnetic
  2. gyroscope
    • gyro compass

gyr·ase ['jī-,rās] -n

  1. a bacterial enzyme that catalyzes the breaking and rejoining of bonds linking adjacent nucleotides in circular DNA to generate supercoiled DNA helices

gy·rate ['jī-,rāt] -adj

  1. winding or coiled around : convoluted
    • gyrate branches of a tree

gyrate [-,rā-tər] -vi, n, adj

  1. to revolve around a point or axis
  2. to oscillate with or as if with a circular or spiral motion

gy·ra·tion [jī-'rā-shən] -n, adj

  1. an act or instance of gyrating
  2. something (as a coil of a shell) that is gyrate

gyre ['jī(-ə)r] -n, adj

  1. a circular or spiral motion or form
  2. a giant circular oceanic surface current
  3. to move in a circle or spiral

gy·rene [jī-'rēn] -n

  1. a U.S. marine

gyr·fal·con ['jər-,fal-kən, -,fȯl- also -,fȯ-kən] -n

  1. an arctic falcon ( Falco rusticolus) that occurs in several color forms and is the largest of all falcons

gy·ro ['jī-(,)rō] -n

  1. gyrocompass
  2. gyroscope
  3. a sandwich esp. of lamb and beef, tomato, onion, and yogurt sauce on pita bread

Gy·ro ['jī-(,)rō] -n

  1. a member of a major international service club

gy·ro·com·pass ['jī-rō-,kəm-pəs also -,käm-] -n

  1. a compass consisting of a continuously driven gyroscope whose spinning axis is confined to a horizontal plane so that the earth's rotation causes it to assume a position parallel to the earth's axis and thus point to the true north

gy·ro·fre·quen·cy [-,frē-kwən(t)-sē] -n

  1. the frequency with which a charged particle (as an electron) executes spiral gyrations in moving obliquely across a magnetic field

gyro horizon -n

  1. artificial horizon

gy·ro·mag·net·ic [,jī-rō-mag-'ne-tik] -adj

  1. of or relating to the magnetic properties of a rotating electrical particle

gyromagnetic ratio -n

  1. the ratio of the magnetic moment of a spinning charged particle to its angular momentum called also g-factor

gy·ro·plane ['jī-rə-,plān] -n

  1. an airplane balanced and supported by the aerodynamic forces acting on rapidly rotating horizontal or slightly inclined airfoils

gy·ro·scope ['jī-rə-,skōp, Brit also 'gī-] -n, adj, adv

  1. a wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly about an axis and also free to rotate about one or both of two axes perpendicular to each other and to the axis of spin so that a rotation of one of the two mutually perpendicular axes results from application of torque to the other when the wheel is spinning and so that the entire apparatus offers considerable opposition depending on the angular momentum to any torque that would change the direction of the axis of spin

gy·ro·sta·bi·liz·er [,jī-rō-'stā-bə-,lī-zər] -n

  1. a stabilizing device (as for a ship or airplane) that consists of a continuously driven gyro spinning about a vertical axis and pivoted so that its axis of spin may be tipped fore-and-aft in the vertical plane and that serves to oppose sideways motion called also gy*ro*stat ji-r-stat

gy·rus ['jī-rəs] -n

  1. a convoluted ridge between anatomical grooves
  2. convolution

Gy Sgt -abbr

  1. gunnery sergeant

gyve ['jīv, 'gīv] -n, vt

  1. fetter, shackle