| adamant | 1. A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substance of extreme hardness; but in modern minerology it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. "Opposed the rocky orb Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield." (Milton) 2. Lodestone; magnet. "A great adamant of acquaintance." "As true to thee as steel to adamant." (Greene) Origin: OE. Adamaunt, adamant, diamond, magnet, OF. Adamant, L. Adamas, adamantis, the hardest metal, fr. Gr,; priv. + to tame, subdue. In OE, from confusion with L. Adamare to love, be attached to, the word meant also magnet, as in OF. And LL. See Diamond, Tame. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| adamantane | <chemical> A tricyclo bridged hydrocarbon. Chemical name: Tricyclo(3.3.1.1(3,7))decane (12 Dec 1998) |
| adamantine | 1. Made of adamant, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; as, adamantine bonds or chains. 2. <chemical> Like the diamond in hardness or luster. Origin: L. Adamantinus, Gr. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| adamantine membrane | The primary enamel cuticle, consisting of two extremely thin layers (the inner one clear and structureless, the outer one cellular), covering the entire crown of newly erupted teeth and subsequently abraded by mastication; it is evident microscopically as an amorphous material between the attachment epithelium and the tooth. Synonym: cuticula dentis, adamantine membrane, dental cuticle, membrana adamantina, Nasmyth's cuticle, Nasmyth's membrane, skin of teeth. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adamantinoma | <tumour> Obsolete term for ameloblastoma. Adamantinoma of long bones, a rare tumour of limb bones, usually the tibia, that microscopically resembles an ameloblastoma; the histogenesis is uncertain. (05 Mar 2000) |