triangle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   something approximating the shape of a triangle

   the coastline of Chile and Argentina and Brazil forms two legs of a triangle

2. 2
   noun

   A polygon with three sides and three angles.

   The wedge-shaped character was the triangle, the archaic Paleolithic sign of the vulva; the pubic triangle was at the end of the phallic stylus.

3. 3
   noun

   A love triangle.

   One of the writers' most pleasing inventions was to treat the triangle love story as comedy.

4. 4
   noun

   A frame formed of three poles stuck in the ground and united at the top, to which people were bound for corporal punishment.

   I was flogged in 1840. To this day I feel a pain in the chest from the triangles.

5. 5
   noun

   A triangular formation of railway tracks, with a curve on at least one side.

   After turning on the triangle at Jeumont, we set off light engine back to Aulnoye.

6. 6
   name

   A place in the United States:

   I moved to the Triangle two years ago.

7. 7
   noun

   a percussion instrument consisting of a metal bar bent in the shape of an open triangle

8. 8
   noun

   any of various triangular drafting instruments used to draw straight lines at specified angles

Etymology

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English triangle, from Old French triangle, from Latin triangulum, noun use of adjective triangulus (“three-cornered, having three angles”), from trēs (“three”) + angulus (“corner, angle”), equivalent to tri- + -angle.