Gyroscope, N.: 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 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.

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Gyroscope, n.:
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 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.
-- Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary

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