Definition of "tangential"

The meteor came in on a tangential orbit and exploded about 8 or 10 miles above the earth's surface, just south of the Arctic Circle.

2002, Edward Teller, Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics, page 560

A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.

2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3

The archoplasm divides and forms a very large spindle which first lies tangential to the surface of the nucleus.

1898, Gary Nathan Calkins, Mitosis in Noctiluca miliaris and its bearing on the nuclear relations of the Protozoa and Metazoa, Ph.D. Thesis, page 3