Elevator

elevator
    n 1: 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 [syn: {elevator}, {lift}]
    2: the airfoil on the tailplane of an aircraft that makes it
       ascend or descend
    

Elevator \El"e*va`tor\, n. [L., one who raises up, a deliverer:
   cf. F. ['e]l['e]vateur.]
   1. One who, or that which, raises or lifts up anything.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A cage or platform (called an elevator car) 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.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A building for elevating, storing, and discharging, grain.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Anat.) A muscle which serves to raise a part of the body,
      as the leg or the eye.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. (Surg.) An instrument for raising a depressed portion of a
      bone.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. (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.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   {Elevator head}, {Elevator leg}, & {Elevator boot}, the boxes
      in which the upper pulley, belt, and lower pulley,
      respectively, run in a grain elevator. [1913 Webster]

   {Elevator shoes}, shoes having unusually thick soles and
      heels, designed to make a person appear taller than he or
      she actually is. [PJC]