| talc | <chemical> A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or grayish colour, usually occurring in foliated masses. It is hydrous silicate of magnesia. Steatite, or soapstone, is a compact granular variety. Indurated talc, an impure, slaty talc, with a nearly compact texture, and greater hardness than common talc. Synonym: talc slate. Origin: F. Talc; cf. Sp. & It. Talco, LL. Talcus; all fr. Ar. Talq. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| talc operation | An obsolete operation in which magnesium silicate (talc) powder is applied to the epicardium to create a sterile granulomatous pericarditis and thus promote pericardial anastomoses with the coronary circulation. Synonym: poudrage. (05 Mar 2000) |
| 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) |
| 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) |