| fee | 1. Property; possession; tenure. "Laden with rich fee." "Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee." (Wordsworth) 2. Reward or compensation for services rendered or to be rendered; especially, payment for professional services, of optional amount, or fixed by custom or laws; charge; pay; perquisite; as, the fees of lawyers and physicians; the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage fees, etc. "To plead for love deserves more fee than hate." (Shak) 3. A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief. 4. An estate of inheritance supposed to be held either mediately or immediately from the sovereign, and absolutely vested in the owner. All the land in England, except the crown land, is of this kind. An absolute fee, or fee simple, is land which a man holds to himself and his heirs forever, who are called tenants in fee simple. In modern writers, by fee is usually meant fee simple. A limited fee may be a qualitified or base fee, which ceases with the existence of certain conditions; or a conditional fee, or fee tail, which is limited to particular heirs. 5. An estate of inheritance belonging to the owner, and transmissible to his heirs, absolutely and simply, without condition attached to the tenure. Fee estate, an absolute fee; a fee without conditions or limits. "Buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter." (Shak) Fee tail, an estate of inheritance, limited and restrained to some particular heirs. Origin: OE. Fe, feh, feoh, cattle, property, money, fiet, AS. Feoh cattle, property, money; the senses of "property, money," arising from cattle being used in early times as a medium of exchange or payment, property chiefly consisting of cattle; akin to OS. Feuh cattle, property, D. Vee cattle, OHG. Fihu, fehu, G. Vieh, Icel. F cattle, property, money, Goth. Faihu, L. Pecus cattle, pecunia property. Money, Skr. Pau cattle, perh. Orig, "a fastened or tethered animal," from a root signifying to bind, and perh. Akin to E. Fang, fair,; cf. OF. Fie, flu, feu, fleu, fief, F. Fief, from German, of the same origin. The sense fief is due to the French. 249. Cf. Feud, Fief, Fellow, Pecuniary. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| fee schedules | A listing of established professional service charges, for specified dental and medical procedures. (12 Dec 1998) |
| fee-for-service plans | Method of charging whereby a physician or other practitioner bills for each encounter or service rendered. In addition to physicians, other health care professionals are reimbursed via this mechanism. Fee-for-service plans contrast with salary, per capita, and prepayment systems, where the payment does not change with the number of services actually used or if none are used. (12 Dec 1998) |
| feeble | 1. Deficient in physical strenght; weak; infirm; debilitated. "Carried all the feeble of them upon asses." (2 Chron. Xxviii. 15) 2. Wanting force, vigor, or efficiency in action or expression; not full, loud, bright, strong, rapid, etc.; faint; as, a feeble colour; feeble motion. "A lady's feeble voice." Origin: OE. Feble, OF. Feble, flebe, floibe, floible, foible, F. Faible, L. Flebilis to be wept over, lamentable, wretched, fr. Flere to weep. Cf. Foible. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| feebly | In a feeble manner. "The restored church . . . Contended feebly, and with half a heart." (Macaulay) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| feed | 1. To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." (Rom. Xii. 20) "Unreasonable reatures feed their young." (Shak) 2. To satisfy; grafity or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire. "I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him." (Shak) "Feeding him with the hope of liberty." (Knolles) 3. To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal. 4. To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard. "Thou shalt feed people Israel." (2 Sam. V. 2) "Mightiest powers by deepest calms are feed." (B. Cornwall) 5. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle; as, if grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep. "Once in three years feed your mowing lands." (Mortimer) 6. To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to a steam boiler. 7. <machinery> To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing press. To produce progressive operation upon or with (as in wood and metal working machines, so that the work moves to the cutting tool, or the tool to the work). Origin: AS. FDAn, fr. FDA food; akin to C?. Fdian, OFries FDA, FDA, D. Voeden, OHG. Fuottan, Icel. Faea, Sw. Foda, Dan. Fode. 75. See Food. 1. That which is eaten; especially, food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep. 2. A grazing or pasture ground. 3. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats. 4. A meal, or the act of eating. "For such pleasure till that hour at feed or fountain never had I found." (Milton) 5. The water supplied to steam boilers. 6. <machinery> The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work. The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones. The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion. Feed bag, a nose bag containing feed for a horse or mule. Feed cloth, an apron for leading cotton, wool, or other fibre, into a machine, as for carding, etc. Feed door, a door to a furnace, by which to supply coal. Feed head. A cistern for feeding water by gravity to a steam boiler. A kind of feeder. See Feeder. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| feed-forward activation | The activation of an enzyme by a precursor of the substrate of that enzyme. (05 Mar 2000) |
| feedback | <physiology> The return of some of the output of a system as input so as to exert some control in the process. (18 Nov 1997) |
| feedback activation | The activation of an enzyme by an end product of a biochemical pathway in which that enzyme plays a part. For example, the activation of factors VIII and V by thrombin during blood clotting. (05 Mar 2000) |
| feedback control | The regulation of the activity of an enzyme by one of its products. (09 Oct 1997) |
| feedback inhibition | <biochemistry, physiology> The process of the end product of a particular metabolic reaction inhibiting an allosteric enzyme involved in that reaction as the reaction starts again, thus breaking the reaction cycle. (09 Oct 1997) |
| feedback regulation | <physiology> Control mechanism that uses the consequences of a process to regulate the rate at which the process occurs: if, for example: the products of a reaction inhibit the reaction from proceeding (or slow down the rate of the reaction), then there is negative feedback, something that is very common in metabolic pathways. Positive feedback is liable to lead to exponential increase and may be explosively dangerous in some cases. Other examples are the action of voltage dependent sodium channels in generating action potentials and the activation of blood clotting factors V and VIII by thrombin. Without damping, feedback can lead to resonance (hunting) and oscillation in the system. (18 Nov 1997) |
| feedback system | A complex of neuronal circuits whereby a part of the efferent path returns to the input to modulate its activity, thus acting as a governor on the system. See: feedback. (05 Mar 2000) |
| feeder | 1. One who, or that which, gives food or supplies nourishment; steward. "A couple of friends, his chaplain and feeder." (Goldsmith) 2. One who furnishes incentives; an encourager. "The feeder of my riots." 3. One who eats or feeds; specifically, an animal to be fed or fattened. "With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder." (Shak) 4. One who fattens cattle for slaughter. 5. <physics> A stream that flows into another body of water; a tributary; specifically, a water course which supplies a canal or reservoir by gravitation or natural flow. 6. A branch railroad, stage line, or the like; a side line which increases the business of the main line. 7. <chemical> A small lateral lode falling into the main lode or mineral vein. A strong discharge of gas from a fissure; a blower. 8. <machinery> An auxiliary part of a machine which supplies or leads along the material operated upon. 9. <engineering> A device for supplying steam boilers with water as needed. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| feeder layer | <cell culture> In order to culture some cells, particularly at low or clonal density, it is necessary to use a layer of less fastidious cells to condition the medium. Often the cells of the feeder layer are irradiated or otherwise treated so that they will not proliferate. In some cases the feeder layer may be producing growth factors or cytokines. (18 Nov 1997) |
| capitation fee | A method of payment for health services in which an individual or institutional provider is paid a fixed, per capita amount without regard to the actual number or nature of services provided to each patient. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| tipping fee | A fee for disposal of waste. (05 Dec 1998) |