VENTURI

[ven.tu.ri] n [G. B. Venturi d. 1822 Ital. physicist] (1887): a short tube with a tapering constriction in the middle that causes an increase in the velocity of flow of a fluid and a corresponding decrease in fluid pressure and that is used esp. in measuring fluid flow or for creating a suction (as for driving aircraft instruments or drawing fuel into the flow stream of a carburetor)