| blue shield | A prepaid health insurance plan for costs of physicians' services. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| water shield | <botany> An aquatic American plant (Brasenia peltata) having floating oval leaves, and the covered with a clear jelly. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shield | 1. To cover with, or as with, a shield; to cover from danger; to defend; to protect from assault or injury. "Shouts of applause ran ringing through the field, To see the son the vanquished father shield." (Dryden) "A woman's shape doth shield thee." (Shak) 2. To ward off; to keep off or out. "They brought with them their usual weeds, fit to shield the cold to which they had been inured." (Spenser) 3. To avert, as a misfortune; hence, as a supplicatory exclamation, forbid! "God shield that it should so befall." (Chaucer) "God shield I should disturb devotion!" (Shak) Origin: AS. Scidan, scyldan. See Shield. 1. A broad piece of defensive armor, carried on the arm, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body. See Buckler. "Now put your shields before your hearts and fight, With hearts more proof than shields." (Shak) 2. Anything which protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection. "My council is my shield." 3. Figuratively, one who protects or defends. "Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." (Gen. Xv. 1) 4. <botany> In lichens, a Hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci. 5. The escutcheon or field on which are placed the bearings in coats of arms. Cf. Lozenge. 6. <chemical> A framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses. 7. A spot resembling, or having the form of, a shield. "Bespotted as with shields of red and black." 8. A coin, the old French crown, or ecu, having on one side the figure of a shield. <botany> Shield fern, any fern of the genus Aspidium, in which the fructifications are covered with shield-shaped indusia; called also wood fern. Origin: OE. Sheld, scheld, AS. Scield, scild, sceld, scyld; akin to OS. Scild, OFries. Skeld, D. & G. Schild, OHG. Scilt, Icel. Skjoldr, Sw. Skold, Dan. Skiold, Goth. Skildus; of uncertain origin. Cf. Sheldrake. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shield-bearer | 1. One who, or that which, carries a shield. 2. <zoology> Any small moth of the genus Aspidisca, whose larva makes a shieldlike covering for itself out of bits of leaves. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| nipple shield | A cap or dome placed over the nipple to protect it during nursing. (05 Mar 2000) |
| embryonic shield | A thickened area of the embryonic blastoderm from which the embryo develops. (05 Mar 2000) |
| valve of oval foramen | A fold projecting into the left atrium from the margin of the foramen ovale in the foetus; when, with beginning inspiration, the blood pressure within the left atrium increases, the valve closes and its edges become adherent to the margin of the foramen ovale, occluding it. Synonym: valvula foraminis ovalis, falx septi, valve of oval foramen. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oval | 1. Of or pertaining to eggs; done in the egg, or inception; as, oval conceptions. 2. Having the figure of an egg; oblong and curvilinear, with one end broader than the other, or with both ends of about the same breadth; in popular usage, elliptical. 3. Broadly elliptical. A body or figure in the shape of an egg, or popularly, of an ellipse. 4. <geometry> Cassinian oval, the locus of a point the product of whose distances from two fixed points is constant; so called from Cassini, who first investigated the curve. Thus, the locus may consist of a single closed line, or of two equal ovals about points A and B. Origin: F. Ovale, fr. L. Ovum egg. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| oval amputation | Amputation in which the flaps are obained by oval incisions through the skin and muscle, rarely used term for oblique amputation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oval area of Flechsig | A compact bundle composed of descending branches of posterior root fibres located near the border between the fasciculi gracilis and cuneatus of the cervical and thoracic spinal cord; it corresponds to the septomarginal fasciculus, Hoche's tract, or oval area of Flechsig in the lumbar, and to the triangle of Philippe-Gombault in the sacral spinal segments; like these, it can be demonstrated only in cases of demyelination resulting from dorsal root lesions. Synonym: fasciculus semilunaris, fasciculus interfascicularis, comma bundle of Schultze, comma tract of Schultze, interfascicular fasciculus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oval corpuscle | One of numerous oval bodies found in the papillae of the skin, especially those of the fingers and toes; they consist of a connective tissue capsule in which the axon fibrils terminate around and between a pile of wedge-shaped epithelioid cells. Synonym: corpusculum tactus, Meissner's corpuscle, oval corpuscle, touch corpuscle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oval fasciculus | A compact bundle composed of descending branches of posterior root fibres located near the border between the fasciculi gracilis and cuneatus of the cervical and thoracic spinal cord; it corresponds to the septomarginal fasciculus, Hoche's tract, or oval area of Flechsig in the lumbar, and to the triangle of Philippe-Gombault in the sacral spinal segments; like these, it can be demonstrated only in cases of demyelination resulting from dorsal root lesions. Synonym: fasciculus semilunaris, fasciculus interfascicularis, comma bundle of Schultze, comma tract of Schultze, interfascicular fasciculus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oval window | Fenestra of the vestibule; an oval opening in the medial wall of the middle ear leading into the vestibule. Normally it is covered by the base of the stapes. (12 Dec 1998) |
| transverse oval pelvis | A pelvis in which the transverse diameter is more than 1 cm longer but less than 3 cm longer than the anteroposterior diameter. Synonym: transverse oval pelvis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| longitudinal oval pelvis | A pelvis in which the anteroposterior diameter is longer than the transverse. Synonym: longitudinal oval pelvis. (05 Mar 2000) |