| flexible | 1. Capable of being flexed or bent; admitting of being turned, bowed, or twisted, without breaking; pliable; yielding to pressure; not stiff or brittle. "When the splitting wind Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks." (Shak) 2. Willing or ready to yield to the influence of others; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering. "Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people." (Bacon) "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible." (Shak) 3. Capable or being adapted or molded; plastic,; as, a flexible language. "This was a principle more flexible to their purpose." (Rogers) Synonym: Pliant, pliable, supple, tractable, manageable, ductile, obsequious, inconstant, wavering. Flex"ibleness, Flex"ibly. Origin: L. Flexibilis: cf. F. Flexible. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| flexible collodion | A mixture of camphor, castor oil, and collodion, or a mixture of castor oil, Canada turpentine, and collodion, used for the same purposes as collodion, but its film possesses the advantage, for certain conditions, of not contracting. (05 Mar 2000) |
| magnification empty | <microscopy> Magnification beyond which no new information is revealed. (05 Aug 1998) |
| empty | 1. Containing nothing; not holding or having anything within; void of contents or appropriate contents; not filled; said of an inclosure, as a box, room, house, etc.; as, an empty chest, room, purse, or pitcher; an empty stomach; empty shackles. 2. Free; clear; devoid; often with of. "That fair female troop . . . Empty of all good." "I shall find you empty of that fault." (Shak) 3. Having nothing to carry; unburdened. "An empty messenger." "When ye go ye shall not go empty." (Ex. Iii. 21) 4. Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language; as, empty words, or threats. "Words are but empty thanks." (Cibber) 5. Unable to satisfy; unsatisfactory; hollow; vain; said of pleasure, the world, etc. "Pleas'd in the silent shade with empty praise." (Pope) 6. Producing nothing; unfruitful; said of a plant or tree; as, an empty vine. "Seven empty ears blasted with the east wind." (Gen. Xli. 27) 7. Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy; as, empty brains; an empty coxcomb. "That in civility thou seem'st so empty." (Shak) 8. Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial; as, empty dreams. Empty is used as the first element in a compound; as, empty-handed, having nothing in the hands, destitute; empty-headed, having few ideas; empty-hearted, destitute of feeling. Synonym: See Vacant. Origin: AS. Emtig, aemtig, aemetig, fr. Aemta, aemetta, quiet, leisure, rest; of uncertain origin; cf. G. Emsig busy. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| empty sella | A sella turcica, often enlarged, that contains no discernible pituitary gland; may be primarily due to an incompetent sellar diaphragm with compression of the pituitary gland by herniating arachnoid or secondarily due to surgery or radiotherapy. (05 Mar 2000) |
| empty sella syndrome | <radiology> Aetiology, idiopathic, most commonly reported in middle-aged obese women (associated with DM, hypertension, normal pituitary function), secondary, pituitary adenoma, surgery or irradiation, communicating hydrocephalus, familial (very rare) X-ray findings: sella normal or increased, intrasellar herniation of subarachnoid space, symptoms: headache, visual disorders, with or without decreased pituitary function, cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhoea (12 Dec 1998) |