cycler

noun

1. Anything with a cyclic (repetitious) behaviour. Something that cycles between different states.

- The battery cycler allows us to switch between batteries as each one runs out.

2. (astronomy) An orbit that approaches two astronomical bodies on a regular basis.

- The Earth-Mars cyclers could potentially be used for transporting people between the two planets.

3. (by extension) A, usually man-made, object that follows such an orbit.

- If we had more than one cycler then the length of time between the outbound and inbound journeys could be reduced to a few months.

4. (psychology, euphemistic) a person with bipolar disorder, often used when comparing the speed of mood swings.

- My son's a fast cycler which is much harder for people to understand.

5. (medicine) A device for performing dialysis; for mechanically purifying blood

- The only issue I have had with my cycler was when the cat started chewing on the connecting line.

6. (biochemistry) a thermal cycler; a machine for creating multiple copies of DNA sequences.

- We took samples from the tubes in the cycler at regular intervals

7. (computing) a task in a cycle of tasks where the status of being active task is passed around the loop.

- When the last cycler has run for 200ms we pass control back to the first one and begin again.

8. (dated) cyclist

- There is nothing more annoying than a rogue cycler ignoring the other road users.