gearbox

UK/ˈɡɪəˌbɒks/US/ˈɡɪəɹˌbɒks/

nounB1+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,052 of 15,258leans writtentechnical · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: gearboxes

The gearbox is the set of toothed wheels that matches engine speed to road speed. Without it a car would be undrivable.

An engine only makes useful power over a narrow range of speeds, so the gearbox trades speed for pulling power and back again, which is why you start in first and finish in fifth. A manual gearbox is changed by hand with a clutch and an automatic does it for you. The word is one word in British English and Americans usually say transmission. A gearbox failure is one of the most expensive things that can happen to a car.

Definitions of gearbox

1noungearboxThe set of gears transmitting power from an engine to the wheels.B1+
“The gearbox went at eighty thousand miles.”

Where it comes from

From gear + box.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Vehicles & Machines

First appears in chapter 27 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

gearbox in the wild

The 1904 Sturtevant "horseless carriage gearbox" is often considered to be the first true automatic transmission.
Automatic transmission
With the popularity of front wheel drive cars, the separate gearbox and final drive have merged into a single transaxle.
Overdrive (mechanics)
The HSD series of gearbox falls into this category.
List of Toyota transmissions
The gearbox and final drive unit is usually combined in a single housing due to the much more restricted space available.
List of Toyota transmissions
In simple terms, a DSG automates two separate "manual" gearboxes (and clutches) contained within one housing and working as one unit.
Direct-shift gearbox

1 / 2

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.

← Vocabulary