| die | 1. To pass from an animate to a lifeless state; to cease to live; to suffer a total and irreparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardships; to die by fire or the sword; to die with horror at the thought. "To die by the roadside of grief and hunger." (Macaulay) "She will die from want of care." (Tennyson) 2. To suffer death; to lose life. "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." (Rom. V. 6) 3. To perish in any manner; to cease; to become lost or extinct; to be extinguished. "Letting the secret die within his own breast." (Spectator) "Great deeds can not die." (Tennyson) 4. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc. "His heart died within, and he became as a stone." (1 Sam. Xxv. 37) "The young men acknowledged, in love letters, that they died for Rebecca." (Tatler) 5. To become indifferent; to cease to be subject; as, to die to pleasure or to sin. 6. To recede and grow fainter; to become imperceptible; to vanish; often with out or away. "Blemishes may die away and disappear amidst the brightness." (Spectator) 7. To disappear gradually in another surface, as where moldings are lost in a sloped or curved face. Synonym: To expire, decease, perish, depart, vanish. Origin: OE. Deyen, dien, of Scand. Origin; cf. Icel. Deyja; akin to Dan. Doe, Sw. Do, Goth. Diwan (cf. Goth. Afdjan to harass), OFries. Dia to kill, OS. Doian to die, OHG. Touwen, OSlav. Daviti to choke, Lith. Dovyti to torment. Cf. Dead, Death. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| diecious | <botany> See dioecian, and dioecious. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Dieffenbach's method | <procedure, surgery> A plastic operation for covering a defect by sliding a flap with broad pedicle. (21 Jun 2000) |
| Dieffenbach, Johann | <person> German surgeon, 1792-1847. See: Dieffenbach's method. (05 Mar 2000) |
| diel | Term frequently used synonymously with diurnal or circadian. Origin: irreg., fr. L. Dies, day (05 Mar 2000) |
| dieldrin | <biochemistry> A toxic chlorinated organic compound that is used as an insecticide. It causes cancer and is restricted to non-agricultural applications. (09 Oct 1997) |
| dielectric | <physics> Any substance or medium that transmits the electric force by a process different from conduction, as in the phenomena of induction; a nonconductor. Separating a body electrified by induction, from the electrifying body. Origin: Pref. Dia- + electric. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| dielectrography | impedance plethysmography |
| dielectrolysis | <technique> Separation of ionic molecules, (principally proteins) by the differential migration through a gel according to the size and ionic charge of the molecules in an electrical field. High resolution techniques normally use a gel support for the fluid phase. Examples of gels used are starch, acrylamide, agarose or mixtures of acrylamide and agarose. Frictional resistance produced by the support causes size, rather than charge alone, to become the major determinant of separation. Smaller molecules with a more negative charge will travel faster and further through the gel toward the anode of an electrophoretic cell when high voltage is applied. Similar molecules will group on the gel. They may be visualised by staining and quantitated, in relative terms, using densitometers which continuously monitor the photometric density of the resulting stain. The electrolyte may be continuous (a single buffer) or discontinuous, where a sample is stacked by means of a buffer discontinuity, before it enters the running gel/ running buffer. The gel may be a single concentration or gradient in which pore size decreases with migration distance. In SDS gel electrophoresis of proteins or electrophoresis of polynucleotides, mobility depends primarily on size and is used to determined molecular weight. In pulse field electrophoresis, two fields are applied alternately at right angles to each other to minimise diffusion mediated spread of large linear polymers. See: electrofocussing, pulse field electrophoresis (01 Dec 1998) |
| Diels hydrocarbon | <biochemistry> A phenanthrene derivative obtained by the dehydrogenation of various steroids. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Diels, Otto | <person> German chemist and Nobel laureate, 1876-1954. See: Diels hydrocarbon. (05 Mar 2000) |
| dielytra | <botany> A genus of herbaceous plants, with racemes of two-spurred or heart-shaped flowers, including the Dutchman's breeches, and the more showy Bleeding heart (D. Spectabilis). [Corruptly written dielytra. Origin: NL, fr. Gr. = twice + spur. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| diencephalic epilepsy | Episodes of autonomic dysfunction presumably due to diencephalic irritation. Synonym: diencephalic epilepsy, vasomotor epilepsy, vasovagal epilepsy. (05 Mar 2000) |
| diencephalic syndrome of infancy | <paediatrics> Profound emaciation after initial normal growth, locomotor hyperactivity and euphoria, usually with skin pallor, hypotension and hypoglycaemia. It is usually due to neoplasm involving the anterior hypothalamus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| diencephalohypophysial | Relating to the diencephalon and hypophysis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bis in die | Twice a day. Origin: L. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| right to die | The right of the patient or the patient's representative to make decisions with regard to the patient's dying. (12 Dec 1998) |
| quater in die | See: q.i.d. Origin: L. Four times a day (05 Mar 2000) |