| sterile | 1. Producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year. 2. <biology> Incapable of reproduction; unfitted for reproduction of offspring; not able to germinate or bear fruit; unfruitful; as, a sterile flower, which bears only stamens. Free from reproductive spores or germs; as, a sterile fluid. 3. Barren of ideas; destitute of sentiment; as, a sterile production or author. Origin: F. Sterile, L. Sterilis, akin to Gr. Stereos stiff, solid, stei^ros barren, stei^ra a cow that has not calved, Goth. Stairo, fem, barren. See Stare to gaze. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| sterile abscess | An abscess whose contents are not caused by pyogenic bacteria. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sterile cyst | A hydatid cyst without brood capsules or viable scoleces. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sterile insect technique | A technique used to control or eradicate insect pests or vectors, utilizing induction by irradiation of dominant lethality in the chromosomes of the released insects. (05 Mar 2000) |
| absorbent cotton | Cotton from which all fatty matter has been extracted, so that it readily takes up fluids. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cotton | <botany> Any of the cultivated varieties of gossypium, herbs or shrubs of the malvaceae family that yield fibre for textiles and absorbent dressings, oil from seeds, and various chemicals. The fibres cause byssinosis if inhaled over a period. Gossypol is a male anti-fertility agent from cottonseed oil. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cotton-dust asthma | <chest medicine> Exposures to cotton dust during the production of yarns, linen and rope can produce chronic obstructive lung disease (after 10 years). Early symptoms include chest tightness. Treatment includes bronchodilators and removal from work environment. (21 Mar 1998) |
| Cotton effect | The positive and negative displacement from zero of the rotation of plane polarised monochromatic light and the change of monochromatic circularly polarised light into elliptically polarised light in the immediate vicinity of the absorption band of the substance through which the light passes. See: optical rotatory dispersion, circular dichroism. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cotton-fibre embolism | Embolism by cotton fibres from sterile gauze used in intravenous medication or transfusion; may form as foreign body granulomas in small pulmonary arteries. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Cotton, Frank | <person> U.S. Chemist, *1930. See: Cotton effect. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cotton-mill fever | <chest medicine> Exposures to cotton dust during the production of yarns, linen and rope can produce chronic obstructive lung disease (after 10 years). Early symptoms include chest tightness. Treatment includes bronchodilators and removal from work environment. (21 Mar 1998) |
| cotton-root bark | Dried root bark of Gossypium herbaceum and other species of Gossypium (family Malvaceae). Has been used as an abortifacient and oxytocic. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cotton-wool patches | <clinical sign, ophthalmology> White, fuzzy areas on the surface of the retina (accumulations of cellular organelles) caused by damage (usually infarction) of the retinal fibre layer. Synonym: cotton-wool spots. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cotton-wool spots | <clinical sign, ophthalmology> White, fuzzy areas on the surface of the retina (accumulations of cellular organelles) caused by damage (usually infarction) of the retinal fibre layer. Synonym: cotton-wool spots. (05 Mar 2000) |
| purified cotton | Absorbent cotton in which the hairs of the seed of varieties of Gossypium and other allied species are freed from adhering impurities, deprived of fatty matter, bleached, and sterilised; used for tampons, etc. (05 Mar 2000) |