Definition of "friction" []

• The rubbing of one object or surface against another. (noun)
• Conflict, as between persons having dissimilar ideas or interests; clash. (noun)
• Physics A force that resists the relative motion or tendency to such motion of two bodies in contact. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And the sole beneficiary of this friction is a load of useless middlemen who extract their money long before it ever gets to the actual creators."
• "Von Clauswitz's "friction" is the accumulation of little things going wrong so that nothing in war turns out as expected, and no situation is as stark or simple as it might appear just looking at the maps and the numbers."
• "But already, the possibility for friction is emerging."