Gyration

Colloquially, a gyration can mean any kind of movement, or more commonly, a piece of bureaucratic red tape.

• Attempting to be dually enrolled as a grad student and an under-grad required numerous gyrations.
• The gyrations necessary to get my new cria transported from Peru were insane.
• I learned a whole new set of gyrations when my fiancée taught me to square dance.

Gy*ra"tion (?), n.

1.

The act of turning or whirling, as around a fixed center; a circular or spiral motion; motion about an axis; rotation; revolution.

The gyrations of an ascending balloon. De Quincey.

If a burning coal be nimbly moved round in a circle, with gyrations continually repeated, the whole circle will appear like fire. Sir I. Newton.

2. Zool.

One of the whorls of a spiral univalve shell.

Center of gyration. Mech. See under Center. -- Radius of gyration the distance between the axis of a rotating body and its center of gyration. Rankine.

© Webster 1913.