(Over 600 volts, nominal.) An overcurrent protective device with a circuit opening fusible part that is heated and severed by the passage of overcurrent through it. A fuse comprises all the parts that form a unit capable of performing the prescribed functions. It may or may not be the complete device necessary to connect it into an electrical circuit.
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: fyo͞oz, IPA(key): /fjuːz/
- Hyphenation: fuse
- Rhymes: -uːz
Etymology 1
From Italian fuso and French fusée, from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).
Noun
fuse (plural fuses)
- A cord that, when lit, conveys the fire to some explosive device, such as a bomb.
- (cellular automata) An otherwise stable arbitrarily long repeating pattern that, when perturbed from one end, destructively carries that perturbation at a constant speed to the other end.