\Cen*trif"u*gal\, a. [L. centrum center + fugere to
flee.]
1. Tending, or causing, to recede from the center.
2. (Bot.)
   (a) Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base,
       as a flower cluster.
   (b) Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the
       fruit, as some embryos.
{Centrifugal force} (Mech.), a force whose direction is from
   a center.
Note: When a body moves in a circle with uniform velocity, a
      force must act on the body to keep it in the circle
      without change of velocity. The direction of this force
      is towards the center of the circle. If this force is
      applied by means of a string to the body, the string
      will be in a state of tension. To a person holding the
      other end of the string, this tension will appear to be
      directed toward the body as if the body had a tendency
      to move away from the center of the circle which it is
      describing. Hence this latter force is often called
      centrifugal force. The force which really acts on the
      body being directed towards the center of the circle is
      called centripetal force, and in some popular treatises
      the centripetal and centrifugal forces are described as
      opposing and balancing each other. But they are merely
      the different aspects of the same stress. --Clerk
      Maxwell.
{Centrifugal impression} (Physiol.), an impression (motor)
   sent from a nerve center outwards to a muscle or muscles
   by which motion is produced.
{Centrifugal machine}, A machine for expelling water or other
   fluids from moist substances, or for separating liquids of
   different densities by centrifugal action; a whirling
   table.
{Centrifugal pump}, a machine in which water or other fluid
   is lifted and discharged through a pipe by the energy
   imparted by a wheel or blades revolving in a fixed case.
   Some of the largest and most powerful pumps are of this
   kind.

\Cen*trif"u*gal\, n.
A centrifugal machine.