| ax | To ask; to inquire or inquire of. This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in the United States. "And Pilate axide him, Art thou king of Jewis?" "Or if he axea fish." 'bdThe king axed after your Grace's welfare." Origin: OE. Axien and asken. See Ask. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| axe | A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle. The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge. The word is used adjectively or in combination; as, axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft; ax-shaped; axlike. This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable: as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe, etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its exclusion here. "The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has of late become prevalent." Origin: OE. Ax, axe, AS. Eax, aex, acas; akin to D. Akse, OS. Accus, OHG. Acchus, G. Axt, Icel. Ox, oxi, Sw. Yxe, Dan. Okse, Goth. Aqizi, Gr, L. Ascia; not akin to E. Acute. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Axenfeld, K Theodor | <person> German ophthalmologist, 1867-1930. See: Morax-Axenfeld diplobacillus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axenic | <biology> A situation in which only one species is present. Thus an axenic culture is uncontaminated by organisms of other species, an axenic organism does not have commensal organisms in the gut etc. Some organisms have obligate symbionts and cannot be grown axenically. (18 Nov 1997) |
| axenic culture | <cell culture, microbiology> A culture that contains only one microbial species. (02 Jan 1998) |
| axerophthol | Synonym: vitamin A. Origin: antixerophthalmic + -ol (05 Mar 2000) |
| axes | Plural of axis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial | <anatomy> Position as it relates to the CNS. Intra-axial is within the CNS, extra-axial is outside the CNS. (16 Dec 1997) |
| axial ametropia | That resulting from a shortening or lengthening of the eyeball on the optic axis, causing hyperopia or myopia, respectively. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial aneurysm | An aneurysm involving the entire circumference of a blood vessel. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial angle | An angle formed by two surfaces of a body, the line of union of which is parallel with its axis; the axial angle's of a tooth are the distobuccal, distolabial, distolingual, mesiobuccal, mesiolabial, and mesiolingual. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial cataract | A lenticular opacity in the visual axis of the lens. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial current | The central rapidly moving portion of the bloodstream in an artery. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial filament | The central filament of a flagellum or cilium; with the electron microscope it is seen as a complex of nine peripheral diplomicrotubules and a central pair of microtubules. Synonym: axoneme. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial hyperopia | Hyperopia due to shortening of the anteroposterior diameter of the globe of the eye. (05 Mar 2000) |