How to Use rotary in a Sentence

rotary

1 of 2 adjective
  • The guest book was a rotary phone on which guests could leave messages.
    — Jenny Block, New York Times, 18 Nov. 2022
  • The spreader can be either a rotary type or a drop type.
    — David Beaulieu, The Spruce, 11 Apr. 2026
  • Phones moved from the desk to the wall and rotary dials gave way to punch buttons.
    — Beth Thames | [email protected], al, 6 Apr. 2022
  • But for the rest of us, a plain, old rotary mower is going to do a good job.
    — Tom MacCubbin, Orlando Sentinel, 10 Sep. 2022
  • Use a rotary beater for an extra-frothy drink.
    — Midwest Living, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Add the seed mixture to a rotary spreader.
    — Haniya Rae, Martha Stewart, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Long gone are the days of rotary phones and missed calls and not even a voicemail box to refer to.
    — Dallas News, 22 Sep. 2022
  • Inside is an old black rotary phone Not hooked up to anything.
    — Sylvie Baumgartel, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2021
  • Each booth has a phone jack behind it, and a red rotary phone will be brought to the table for calls.
    — Dallas News, 24 Aug. 2022
  • Their products range from detail trimmers to body groomers to rotary shavers.
    — Chris Hachey, BGR, 3 Aug. 2022
  • Both rotary knobs make an assuring click when twisted.
    — ArsTechnica, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The rotary machine is sorta the opposite of that one, but in a good way.
    — Caleb Jacobs, The Drive, 11 Mar. 2026
  • There are six length guards included and a rotary dial to adjust the blade length.
    — Men's Health, 14 Feb. 2023
  • The team members used a dual rotary drill rig to create the boreholes.
    — Vanessa Bates Ramirez, Scientific American, 18 Feb. 2026
  • The habitat entrance consists of a door with a rotary valve that must be turned to unlock the door.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 23 Jan. 2023
  • No one expects rotary phones or adding machines to come crawling back from oblivion.
    — Charles Platt, WIRED, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Such thinking, at least in academic circles, has gone the way of rotary phones.
    — Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Wood desks have replaced green metal mainframes, and the ashtrays and rotary phones are gone.
    — Marco Hernandez, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2026
  • For the past seven years, Sutz has continued to paint with a torn rotary cuff in his right arm.
    — AZCentral.com, 17 Oct. 2021
  • Beneath the Mute button, there’s a rotary knob that can be used to adjust the amount of gain.
    — Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Milwaukee’s first rotary-style sushi restaurant is here.
    — Hannah Kirby, jsonline.com, 4 Feb. 2026
  • There are nine rotary snowplows, huge trucks that collect snow off the roads and fling it into the nearby forests.
    — St. John Barned-Smith, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar. 2023
  • Maybe even call on a rotary dial phone, or a Nokia shaped like a brick, to stick with ’90s vibe.
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 20 Dec. 2020
  • There’s a rotary dial here that comes in handy for those who don’t want to have to constantly reach for the touchscreen.
    — Christian De Looper, BGR, 17 June 2022
  • Big Mama was in the doorway of the kitchen, talking on the rotary telephone.
    — Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2020
  • Jackhammers and rotary hammers blast away layers of rock that formed over the dinosaur’s gravesite.
    — Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2022
  • Add 3 cups of water to the cranberry sauce and beat with a rotary beater until smooth.
    — Dallas News, 23 Nov. 2022
  • On a floor with small hexagonal tiles, a rotary tool fitted with a 1/16-inch bit works well.
    — Washington Post, 23 May 2021
  • The rover is equipped with a rotary percussive drill (with extra drill bits) that both spins and hammers into the rock.
    — Ramin Skibba, Wired, 2 Sep. 2021
  • The 67-year-old was an avid cyclist and a member of the city of Lodi’s rotary club.
    — Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2022

rotary

2 of 2 noun
  • What Mazda fans will be glad to hear is that the rotary is not dead.
    — Peter Lyon, Forbes, 23 June 2021
  • The cordless handset sits atop its base like an old rotary—a nice design twist.
    — Paul Schrodt, WSJ, 5 July 2018
  • Anyone looking to purchase the rotary model though is out of luck.
    — Mack Degeurin, Popular Science, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Read on for our picks of the best electric shavers for men, from rotary to foil options, and even one for the bald-head shavers.
    — Adam Hurly, Robb Report, 15 Aug. 2022
  • It should be turned into a roundabout (also known as a traffic circle or rotary).
    — Time, 17 July 2023
  • Then firefighters used a rotary saw to cut just above the kitten’s whereabouts, and carefully knocked away loose bricks to free it.
    — Brian Whitehead, Orange County Register, 30 May 2017
  • And the console rotary knob makes way for a more contemporary-looking touchpad.
    — Jens Meiners, Car and Driver, 12 Aug. 2020
  • These hubs would include parking structures, bus rotaries, transit amenities, and pick up and drop off areas.
    — Angela Osorio, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2026
  • The rotary is still quite attractive to us, because there is so much potential for improvement.
    — Csaba Csere, Car and Driver, 1 Feb. 2023
  • Use a gouge or rotary tool ($50, The Home Depot) to etch large sections.
    — Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Oct. 2022
  • That’s why a manual can opener with a safety rotary like this pick from Kuhn Rikon is a great option.
    — Adria Greenhauff, Better Homes & Gardens, 31 Jan. 2023
  • The rollover location is about a half-mile north of the West Beach/Middle Beach rotary.
    — Peter Marteka, courant.com, 25 June 2019
  • The truck was last seen entering the rotary in the area of Broadway and Main Street in Everett.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 28 July 2019
  • Cordless rotary hammer for concrete and masonry.
    — Andrew P. Collins, The Drive, 25 Mar. 2026
  • And there was the hypnotizingly wonderful rotary die cutter, which sucked up cardboard and sent a cutting die across the surface.
    — Matthew Shaer, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2022
  • When making applications, use a rotary or drop spreader for even distribution.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 4 Dec. 2025
  • The system can also be operated by a large rotary knob on the center console as well as through gesture controls that are more gimmicky than useful.
    — Eric Stafford, Car and Driver, 27 Jan. 2023
  • Then turn the rotary switch to Volts AC (Vac), which is also indicated by a wavy line on the dial.
    — Joseph Truini, Popular Mechanics, 29 Mar. 2022
  • Other memorable relics found include two operating rotary hook style phones, old furniture, and wood reservoir tub with pull chain.
    — La Risa R. Lynch, jsonline.com, 26 Dec. 2025
  • The caller told police the Toyota was heading toward the Route 3A rotary.
    — Emily Sweeney, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Jan. 2023
  • And on that dividing line sits the Holy Name rotary, where voters from two precincts were deadlocked on their vote in September.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Instead, a version of the rotary will act as a range extender in one of two electric vehicles the brand will debut for 2020.
    — Andrew Moseman, Popular Mechanics, 2 Oct. 2018
  • The advantage is slight; in typical mowing conditions, a rotary mower and a mulching mower perform equally well.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Apr. 2026
  • In Abbeville last year, some Yellow Vest protesters first gathered at one of the town’s biggest rotaries, near a major shopping mall.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 26 Dec. 2019
  • In the early days of telephony, rotary and landline phones dominated households, and address books were common fixtures by the kitchen telephone.
    — Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Oct. 2025
  • Apply this fertilizer four times a year with a drop or rotary spreader, waiting 6-8 weeks between each application.
    — Samantha Jones, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 May 2023
  • However, as ice turned the roads slick, the family became stuck at a rotary by the airport, CNN reported.
    — Shealagh Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Due to Eno's efforts, things such as speed limits, right-of-way rules at intersections and rotaries, pavement markings, one way streets and turn signals have been codified to law.
    — Courant Community, 5 June 2017
  • With roundabouts, drivers approaching to enter the flow of traffic yield to cars already in the roundabout, but rotaries usually have two to three lanes with outside lane that allows cars to merge right away.
    — Monroe Trombly, Cincinnati.com, 12 Sep. 2017
  • Specifically, ten Brink said the rotary could become a range extender for an electric car in 2019, and for now that’s just a rumor.
    — Matthew Jancer, Popular Mechanics, 21 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rotary.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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