Hypertext Webster Gateway: "gimbals"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Gimbal \Gim"bal\, or Gimbals \Gim"bals\, n. [See {Gimmal}, n.]
A contrivance for permitting a body to incline freely in all
directions, or for suspending anything, as a barometer,
ship's compass, chronometer, etc., so that it will remain
plumb, or level, when its support is tipped, as by the
rolling of a ship. It consists of a ring in which the body
can turn on an axis through a diameter of the ring, while the
ring itself is so pivoted to its support that it can turn
about a diameter at right angles to the first.
{Gimbal joint} (Mach.), a universal joint embodying the
principle of the gimbal.
{Gimbal ring}, a single gimbal, as that by which the cockeye
of the upper millstone is supported on the spindle.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
gimbals
n : an appliance that allows an object (such as a ship's
compass) to remain horizontal even as its support tips
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