<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>Geometry: the middle point, as the point within a circle or sphere equally distant from all points of the circumference or surface, or the point within a regular polygon equally distant from the vertices</li><li>Antonyms: edge</li><li>a point, pivot, axis, etc., around which anything rotates or revolves: The sun is the center of the solar system</li><li>the source of an influence, action, force, etc.: the center of a problem</li><li>a point, place, person, etc., upon which interest, emotion, etc., focuses: His family is the center of his life</li><li>a principal point, place, or object: a shipping center</li><li>a building or part of a building used as a meeting place for a particular group or having facilities for certain activities: a youth center; The company has a complete recreation center in the basement</li><li>an office or other facility providing a specific service or dealing with a particular emergency: a flood-relief center; a crisis center</li><li>a person, thing, group, etc., occupying the middle position, especially a body of troops</li><li>the core or middle of anything: chocolate candies with fruit centers</li><li>a store or establishment devoted to a particular subject or hobby, carrying supplies, materials, tools, and books as well as offering guidance and advice: a garden center; a nutrition center</li><li>shopping center</li><li>(usually initial capital letter) Government: the part of a legislative assembly, especially in continental Europe, that sits in the center of the chamber, a position customarily assigned to members of the legislature who hold political views intermediate between those of the Right and Left</li><li>the members of such an assembly who sit in the Center</li><li>the political position of persons who hold moderate views</li><li>politically moderate persons, taken collectively; Centrists; middle-of-the-roaders: Unfortunately, his homeland has always lacked a responsible Center</li><li>Football: a lineman who occupies a position in the middle of the line and who puts the ball into play by tossing it between his legs to a back</li><li>the position played by this lineman</li><li>Basketball: a player who participates in a center jump</li><li>the position of the player in the center of the court, where the center jump takes place at the beginning of play</li><li>Ice Hockey: a player who participates in a face-off at the beginning of play</li><li>Baseball: center field</li><li>Physiology: a cluster of nerve cells governing a specific organic process: the vasomotor center</li><li>Mathematics: the mean position of a figure or system</li><li>the set of elements of a group that commute with every element of the group</li><li>Machinery: a tapered rod, mounted in the headstock spindle (live center) or the tailstock spindle (dead center) of a lathe, upon which the work to be turned is placed</li><li>one of two similar points on some other machine, as a planing machine, enabling an object to be turned on its axis</li><li>a tapered indentation, in a piece to be turned on a lathe, into which a center is fitted</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) to place in or on a center: She centered the clock on the mantelpiece</li><li>to collect to or around a center; focus: He centered his novel on the Civil War</li><li>to determine or mark the center of: A small brass star centered the tabletop</li><li>to adjust, shape, or modify (an object, part, etc.) so that its axis or the like is in a central or normal position: to center the lens of a telescope; to center the work on a lathe</li><li>to place (an object, part, etc.) so as to be equidistant from all bordering or adjacent areas</li><li>Football: snap</li><li>to pass (a basketball, hockey puck, etc.) from any place along the periphery toward the middle of the playing area</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>to be at or come to a center</li><li>to come to a focus; converge; concentrate (followed by at, about, around, in, or on): The interest of the book centers specifically on the character of the eccentric hero. Political power in the town centers in the position of mayor</li><li>to gather or accumulate in a cluster; collect (followed by at, about, around, in, or on): Shops and municipal buildings center around the city square</li></ul>