horizontal

comparative more horizontal · superlative most horizontal

1. Perpendicular to the vertical; parallel to the plane of the horizon; level, flat.

   horizontal lines

   3 more examples

   I also claim the combination of the separator shaft with the shoe, and with the pitman, for the purpose of imparting to it a recriprocating horizontal movement, and a vibratory movement on its axis at the same time,...

   1847, editorial staff, “Winnowing Machines”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68

   Power is derived from a British United Traction Limited "A"-type 150-h.p. six-cylinder horizontal diesel engine; this drives through a fluid flywheel, and thence through a free wheel unit to a four-speed epicyclic gearbox.

   1958 April 28, “Diesel Railbus for British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 275

   […] a pair of pauldrons with the light horizontal bar which in later years developed into the high neckguard of the sixteenth century; numbers of gauntlets, visors of helmets, and other pieces, the handling of which is a sheer joy […]

   1976, Apollo: A Journal of the Arts

2. businessRelating to horizontal markets
3. archaicPertaining to the horizon.

   As when the Sun new ris'n / Looks through the Horizontal misty Air

   1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 594-595

4. beveragesInvolving wines of the same vintages but from different wineries.
5. entertainmentHaving the two notes sound successively.

   Synonyms: linear, melodic · Antonyms: vertical

6. euphemisticlifestyleRelating to sexual intercourse.

   horizontal tango

   1 more example

   Comparing a man who inspires you intellectually and makes you laugh with a guy who fulfils all your horizontal desires means you’re not comparing like with like.

   2020 February 2, Mariella Frostrup, “One is a great guy; the other is good in bed. So who do I choose?”, in The Guardian

7. biologyBeing or relating to the transmission of organisms between biotic and/or abiotic members of an ecosystem that are not in a parent-progeny relationship.

   Infectious agents may spread by horizontal transmission.

plural horizontals

1. A horizontal component of a structure.
2. geographyHorizon.
3. A Tasmanian shrub or small tree whose main trunk tends to lean over and grow horizontally, Anodopetalum biglandulosum