1. Moving or directed away from a center or axis.

2. Operated by means of centrifugal force.

3. Physiology Transmitting nerve impulses away from the central nervous system; efferent.

4. Botany Developing or progressing outward from a center or axis, as in a flower cluster in which the oldest flowers are in the center and the youngest flowers are near the edge.

5. Tending or directed away from centralization, as of authority: "In a feverish explosion of centrifugal nationalism, one after another of the empire's ethnic groups proclaimed independence" (Adam Hochschild).