Definition of "centrifugal" [cen•trif•u•gal]

• Moving or directed away from a center or axis. (adjective)
• Operated by means of centrifugal force. (adjective)
• Physiology Transmitting nerve impulses away from the central nervous system; efferent. (adjective)
• Botany Developing or progressing outward from a center or axis, as in a flower cluster in which the oldest flowers are in the center and the youngest flowers are near the edge. (adjective)
• Tending or directed away from centralization, as of authority: "The division of Europe into two warring blocs, each ultimately dependent on a superpower patron, is subject to ever-increasing centrifugal stress” ( Scott Sullivan). (adjective)

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 this yielding of the centripetal power to that which we call centrifugal can only take place in a condition of human society where the idea of communism has been accepted as the ideal and, in some effective measure, realized in fact."
• "Since the time of David many boys have swung pebbles by a string, or sling, and felt the pull of what we call a centrifugal (center-fleeing) force."
• "They provide external agents for what they call the centrifugal force."