joystick

or joy stick

[ joi-stik ]

noun

1. Informal. the control stick of an airplane, tank, or other vehicle.
2. Computers. a lever resembling this, used to control movement of a cursor or other graphic element for video games and computer graphics. Compare mouse ( def 4 ), stylus ( def 3 ).
3. any leverlike switch for controlling, manipulating, guiding, or the like.

joystick

/ ˈdʒɔɪˌstɪk /

noun

1. informal.
   the control stick of an aircraft or of any of various machines
2. computing a lever by means of which the display on a screen may be controlled used esp for games, flight simulators, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of joystick¹

First recorded in 1905–10; joy + stick ¹

Example Sentences

Picking "classic" will let players focus entirely on selecting commands from menus, instead of giving direct joystick control to a "lead" character like Cloud or Tifa.

From Ars Technica

The animals need to understand the link between moving around a joystick and what’s happening on a computer screen, and then link what’s happening on the screen to getting a reward.

From Popular-Science

In a new study, researchers from Purdue University in Indiana, US have shown that pigs can use a digital screen and joystick, operated by their snout, to move a cursor around for rewards.

From Popular-Science

Alcántar followed a few paces back, holding an iPad with touch-screen controls like a joystick’s.

From MIT Technology Review

The accompanying software lets you customize the responsiveness of things like triggers and joysticks, and map button combos and commands to whatever buttons you wish.

From Time

All it takes is a look beyond the joystick, and local software shop, to get a glimpse at its shining promise.

From The Daily Beast

His hand had been jerking the joystick to plus one all this time and now he became consciously aware of this.

From Project Gutenberg

For the daring and brilliant youth who held the joystick was a master-pilot, who understood every whim and fancy of his machine.

From Project Gutenberg

The pilot pushes the joystick slowly forward and prepares to land.

From Project Gutenberg

Probably he was shot dead and fell over on to the joystick, which put the machine to its last dive.

From Project Gutenberg

Some one else has produced the latest thing in connections between the pilot's joystick and the Vickers gun.

From Project Gutenberg