| wafer | 1. A thin cake made of flour and other ingredients. "Wafers piping hot out of the gleed." (Chaucer) "The curious work in pastry, the fine cakes, wafers, and marchpanes." (Holland) "A woman's oaths are wafers break with making" (B. Jonson) 2. A thin cake or piece of bread (commonly unleavened, circular, and stamped with a crucifix or with the sacred monogram) used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church. 3. An adhesive disk of dried paste, made of flour, gelatin, isinglass, or the like, and colouring matter, used in sealing letters and other documents. Wafer cake, a sweet, thin cake. Wafer irons, or Wafer tongs, a pincher-shaped contrivance, having flat plates, or blades, between which wafers are baked. Wafer woman, a woman who sold wafer cakes; also, one employed in amorous intrigues. Origin: OE. Wafre, OF. Waufre, qaufre, F. Qaufre; of Teutonic origin; cf. LG. & D. Wafel, G. Waffel, Dan. Vaffel, Sw. Vaffla; all akin to G. Wabe a honeycomb, OHG. Waba, being named from the resemblance to a honeycomb. G. Wabe is probably akin to E. Weave. See Weave, and cf. Waffle, Gauffer. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| overall | A single citation covering several articles of various degrees of specificity or a single citation covering papers presented at a meeting. A subject overall refers to a series of articles on a single subject; a congress overall refers to papers presented at a formal local, regional, national, or international gathering; a society overall refers to papers presented at an annual, semi-annual, monthly, weekly, or other meeting of a society, academy, institute, hospital, etc. The publication type may be used for a single citation with or without the additional indexing or cataloging of individual papers. The individual papers, however, are not labelled overall. (12 Dec 1998) |
| overall response rate | <pharmacology> Sum of complete and partial tumour responses seen in a study, divided by the number of evaluable patients. (05 Jan 1998) |
| 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) |
| 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) |