(of gears, esp the gears of watches) having teeth set at a right angle to the axis
contrate in American English
(ˈkɑntreit)
adjective
Horology(of a gear)
having teeth at right angles to the plane of rotation
Word origin
[1680–90; contra-1 + -ate1]This word is first recorded in the period 1680–90. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: commercial, commode, skyrocket, turnoff, turnout-ate is a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, its English distribution parallelingthat of Latin. The form originated as a suffix added to a- stem verbs to form adjectives (separate). The resulting form could also be used independently as a noun (advocate) and came to be used as a stem on which a verb could be formed (separate; advocate; agitate). In English the use as a verbal suffix has been extended to stems of non-Latin origin(calibrate; acierate)