| advent | 1. The period including the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent Sunday, the first Sunday in the season of Advent, being always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew (Now. 30). 2. The first or the expected second coming of Christ. 3. Coming; any important arrival; approach. "Death's dreadful advent." (Young) "Expecting still his advent home." (Tennyson) Origin: L. Adventus, fr. Advenire, adventum: cf. F. Avent. See Advene. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| adventitia | The outermost connective tissue covering of any organ, vessel, or other structure not covered by a serosa; instead, the covering is properly derived from without (i.e., from the surrounding connective tissue) and does not form an integral part of such organ or structure. Synonym: tunica adventitia, membrana adventitia. Origin: L. Adventicius, coming from abroad, foreign, fr. Ad, to + venio, to come (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitial | Relating to the outer coat or adventitia of a blood vessel or other structure. Synonym: adventitious. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitial cell | <pathology> Cell associated with the walls of small blood vessels: not a smooth muscle cell, nor an endothelial cell. (18 Nov 1997) |
| adventitial neuritis | Inflammation of the sheath of a nerve. See: perineuritis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitious | <botany> Describes roots or shoots or other parts that grow in an uncharacteristic place on a plant (such as roots growing from leaves). (06 May 1997) |
| adventitious albuminuria | Albuminuria resulting from the presence of blood escaping somewhere in the urinary tract, of chyle, or of some other albuminous fluid, not caused by filtration of albumin from the blood through the kidneys. Synonym: false albuminuria. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitious bursa | <anatomy> A bursa-like cyst formed between two parts as a result of friction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitious cyst | 1. An accumulation of fluid in a cystlike loculus, but without an epithelial or other membranous lining. Synonym: adventitious cyst, false cyst. 2. A cyst whose wall is formed by a host cell and not by a parasite. 3. A mass of 50 or more Toxoplasma bradyzoites, found within a host cell, frequently in the brain; formerly called a pseudocyst, but now considered a true cyst enclosed in its own membrane within the host cell that may rupture to release particles that form new cysts, and apparently is infective to another vertebrate host. See: bradyzoite. Origin: pseudo-+ G. Kystis, bladder (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventive | In botany terminology, describes a plant which has been introduced to an area recently, in particular since colonisation by humans. (09 Oct 1997) |
| adventure | 1. That which happens without design; chance; hazard; hap; hence, chance of danger or loss. "Nay, a far less good to man it will be found, if she must, at all adventures, be fastened upon him individually." (Milton) 2. Risk; danger; peril. "He was in great adventure of his life." (Berners) 3. The encountering of risks; hazardous and striking enterprise; a bold undertaking, in which hazards are to be encountered, and the issue is staked upon unforeseen events; a daring feat. "He loved excitement and adventure." (Macaulay) 4. A remarkable occurrence; a striking event; a stirring incident; as, the adventures of one's life. 5. A mercantile or speculative enterprise of hazard; a venture; a shipment by a merchant on his own account. A bill of adventure, a writing setting forth that the goods shipped are at the owner's risk. Synonym: Undertaking, enterprise, venture, event. Origin: OE. Aventure, aunter, anter, F. Aventure, fr. LL. Adventura, fr. L. Advenire, adventum, to arrive, which in the Romance languages took the sense of "to happen, befall." See Advene. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| adventuress | A female adventurer; a woman who tries to gain position by equivocal means. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |