| Shibley's sign | <clinical sign> On auscultation of the chest, the spoken sound "e" is heard as "ah" over an area of pulmonary consolidation or immediately above a pleural effusion. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| shide | A thin board; a billet of wood; a splinter. Origin: OE. Shide, schide, AS. Scide; akin to OHG. Scit, G. Scheit, Icel. Ski, and E. Shed, v.t. 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) |
| shielddrake | <zoology> A sheldrake. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shieldtail | <zoology> Any species of small burrowing snakes of the family Uropeltidae, native of Ceylon and Southern Asia. They have a small mouth which can not be dilated. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shieling | A hut or shelter for shepherds of fishers. See Sheeling. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shift | 1. The act of shifting. Specifically: The act of putting one thing in the place of another, or of changing the place of a thing; change; substitution. "My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air." (Sir H. Wotton) A turning from one thing to another; hence, an expedient tried in difficalty; often, an evasion; a trick; a fraud. "Reduced to pitiable shifts." "I 'll find a thousand shifts to get away." (Shak) "Little souls on little shifts rely." (Dryden) 2. Something frequently shifted; especially, a woman's under-garment; a chemise. 3. The change of one set of workmen for another; hence, a spell, or turn, of work; also, a set of workmen who work in turn with other sets; as, a night shift. 4. In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc, that are placed in courses so as to break joints. 5. <chemical> A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault. 6. A change of the position of the hand on the finger board, in playing the violin. To make shift, to contrive or manage in an exigency. "I shall make shift to go without him." "[They] made a shift to keep their own in Ireland." (Milton) Origin: Cf. Icel skipti. See Shift. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shift to the left | A marked increase in the percentage of immature cells in the circulating blood, based on the premise in haematology that the bone marrow with its immature myeloid cells is on the left, while the circulating blood with its mature neutrophils is on the right. Synonym: deviation to the left. See: maturation index. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shift to the right | In a differential count of white blood cells in the peripheral blood, the absence of young and immature forms. Synonym: deviation to the right. See: maturation index. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shifted maxwellian | <radiobiology> Distribution function of the form Exp[-((v-u)/v_thermal)^2], where the ordinary Maxwellian thermal distribution is shifted by some velocity u. (09 Oct 1997) |
| shifter | 1. One who, or that which, shifts; one who plays tricks or practices artifice; a cozener. "'T was such a shifter that, if truth were known, Death was half glad when he had got him down." (Milton) 2. An assistant to the ship's cook in washing, steeping, and shifting the salt provisions. 3. <machinery> A wire for changing a loop from one needle to another, as in narrowing, etc. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shiftiness | The quality or state of being shifty. "Diplomatic shiftiness and political versatility." (J. A. Syminds) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shifting cultivation | A farming method where land is extensively used to cultivate crops for a few years, then allowed to lie fallow for several years, then used again. (09 Oct 1997) |
| shifting dullness | A sign of free peritoneal fluid wherein the dullness of percussion shifts, generally from one to the other, as the patient is turned from side to side. (05 Mar 2000) |