catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Elevator \El"e*va`tor\, n. [L., one who raises up, a deliverer:
     cf. F. ['e]l['e]vateur.]
     1. One who, or that which, raises or lifts up anything.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A mechanical contrivance, usually an endless belt or chain
        with a series of scoops or buckets, for transferring grain
        to an upper loft for storage.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A cage or platform (called an elevator car) and the
        hoisting machinery in a hotel, warehouse, mine, etc., for
        conveying persons, goods, etc., to or from different
        floors or levels; -- called in England a lift; the cage
        or platform itself.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A building for elevating, storing, and discharging, grain.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Anat.) A muscle which serves to raise a part of the body,
        as the leg or the eye.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Surg.) An instrument for raising a depressed portion of a
        bone.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     7. (A["e]ronautics) A movable plane or group of planes used
        to control the altitude or fore-and-aft poise or
        inclination of an airship or flying machine.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     Elevator head, Elevator leg, & Elevator boot, the boxes
        in which the upper pulley, belt, and lower pulley,
        respectively, run in a grain elevator. [1913 Webster]
  
     Elevator shoes, shoes having unusually thick soles and
        heels, designed to make a person appear taller than he or
        she actually is. [PJC]