gasket

UK/ˈɡæs.kɪt/US/ˈɡæs.kɪt/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,674 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: gaskets

A gasket is the flat seal between two bolted surfaces. Blow a gasket, replace the head gasket, a rubber gasket.

It fills the tiny gaps that two machined faces still leave, and it is deliberately the soft part so that it fails before the metal does. A blown head gasket is an expensive repair, which is why blow a gasket came to mean lose your temper.

Definitions of gasket

1noungasketThe flat seal between two bolted surfaces.C1
“Oil was leaking from the engine because the gasket had worn out.”

gasket is a seal.

Where it comes from

Perhaps from French garcette, a small cord, first used at sea for the line that tied a furled sail.

Old French
garce — young woman
Middle French
garcette — gasket
English, today
gasket

Perhaps from Middle French garcette (“gasket”), from Old French garce (“young woman”), feminization of garçon.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Repair & Damage

Practise this word

gasket in the wild

However, due to health hazards associated with asbestos exposure, non-asbestos gasket materials are used when practical.
Gasket
Some (piping) gaskets are made entirely of metal and rely on a seating surface to accomplish the seal; the metal's own spring characteristics are utilized.
Gasket
Some gaskets are made of sennit instead of rope.
Gasket (sailing)
In an internal combustion engine, a head gasket provides the seal between the engine block and cylinder head(s).
Head gasket
Leaks in the head gasket can cause poor engine running and/or overheating.
Head gasket

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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