1. [n]  lifting device consisting of a platform or cage that is raised and lowered mechanically in a vertical shaft in order to move people from one floor to another in a building
2. [n]  the airfoil on the tailplane of an aircraft that makes it ascend or descend

Elevator
Elevator

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1. \El"e*va`tor\, n. [L., one who raises up, a deliverer:
   cf. F. ['e]l['e]vateur.]
   One who, or that which, raises or lifts up anything; as:
   (a) A mechanical contrivance, usually an endless belt or
       chain with a series of scoops or buckets, for
       transferring grain to an upper loft for storage.
   (b) A cage or platform and the hoisting machinery in a hotel,
       warehouse, mine, etc., for conveying persons, goods,
       etc., to or from different floors or levels; -- called in
       England a lift; the cage or platform itself.
   (c) A building for elevating, storing, and discharging,
       grain.
   (d) (Anat.) A muscle which serves to raise a part of the
       body, as the leg or the eye.
   (e) (Surg.) An instrument for raising a depressed portion of
       a bone.
   {Elevator head}, {leg}, & {boot}, the boxes in which the
      upper pulley, belt, and lower pulley, respectively, run in
      a grain elevator.
   

2. \El"e*va`tor\, n. (A["e]ronautics)
   A movable plane or group of planes used to control the
   altitude or fore-and-aft poise or inclination of an airship
   or flying machine.