tourbillon

Borrowed from French tourbillon (“whirlwind”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌtʊə(ɹ)bɪˈjɒn/

tourbillon (plural tourbillons)

1. A rotating frame, containing the escapement of a clock or watch, that attempts to compensate for the effects of gravity.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 514:

     Time was vulnerable to the force of gravity. So Breguet came up with the tourbillon, which isolated the balance wheel and escarpment off on a little platform of their own

2. A whirlwind.
3. A kind of firework that gyrates in the air.
4. Any part of a machine with a spiral movement.

• bunitrolol

From Old French torbeil +‎ -on.

• IPA^(key): /tuʁ.bi.jɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

tourbillon m (plural tourbillons)

1. whirlwind
2. eddy, whirlpool
3. (physics) vortex
4. (figuratively) whirl, whirlwind, maelstrom
5. tourbillon

• tourbillonnaire
• tourbillonner

• → English: tourbillon
• → Romanian: turbion

• “tourbillon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.