Vor"tex (?), n.; pl. E. Vortexes (#), L. Vortices (#). [L. vortex, vertex, -icis, fr. vortere, vertere, to turn. See Vertex.]
1.
A mass of fluid, especially of a liquid, having a whirling or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle, and to draw in towards the center bodies subject to its action; the form assumed by a fluid in such motion; a whirlpool; an eddy.
2. Cartesian System
A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices.
3. Zool.
Any one of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera. See Illustration in Appendix.
Vortex atom Chem., a hypothetical ring-shaped mass of elementary matter in continuous vortical motion. It is conveniently regarded in certain mathematical speculations as the typical form and structure of the chemical atom. -- Vortex wheel, a kind of turbine.
© Webster 1913.