| kill | 1. To deprive of life, animal or vegetable, in any manner or by any means; to render inanimate; to put to death; to slay. "Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words !" (Shak) 2. To destroy; to ruin; as, to kill one's chances; to kill the sale of a book. "To kill thine honor." "Her lively colour kill'd with deadly cares." (Shak) 3. To cause to cease; to quell; to calm; to still; as, in seamen's language, a shower of rain kills the wind. "Be comforted, good madam; the great rage, You see, is killed in him." (Shak) 4. To destroy the effect of; to counteract; to neutralize; as, alkali kills acid. To kill time, to busy one's self with something which occupies the attention, or makes the time pass without tediousness. Synonym: To murder, assassinate, slay, butcher, destroy. To Kill, Murder, Assassinate. To kill does not necessarily mean any more than to deprive of life. A man may kill another by accident or in self-defense, without the imputation of guilt. To murder is to kill with malicious forethought and intention. To assassinate is tomurder suddenly and by stealth. The sheriff may kill without murdering, the duelist murders, but does not assassinate his antagonist, the assassin kills and murders. 5. A kiln. 6. A channel or arm of the sea; a river; a stream; as, the channel between Staten Island and Bergen Neck is the Kill van Kull, or the Kills; used also in composition; as, Schuylkill, Catskill, etc. Origin: OE. Killen, kellen, cullen, to kill, strike; perh. The same word as cwellen, quellen, to kill (cf. Quell), or perh. Rather akin to Icel. Kolla to hit in the head, harm, kollr top, summit, head, Sw. Kulle, D. Kollen to kill with the ax. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| fractional | 1. Of or pertaining to fractions or a fraction; constituting a fraction; as, fractional numbers. 2. Relatively small; inconsiderable; insignificant; as, a fractional part of the population. <chemistry> Fractional crystallization, a process of distillation so conducted that a mixture of liquids, differing considerably from each other in their boiling points, can be separated into its constituents. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| fractional condensation | A lab technique used to separate the components of a vapor containing a mixture of substances. This is done by taking advantage of the fact that the different chemicals have different boiling points. The mixture undergoes repeated condensations, where the chemical with the highest boiling point condenses out of the vapor first and can be separated from the rest, then the chemical with the next highest boiling point condenses out, etc. (09 Oct 1997) |
| fractional distillation | Distillation of a compound liquid at varying degrees of heat whereby the components of different boiling points are collected separately. (05 Mar 2000) |
| fractional dose | A definite fraction of a full dose; given repeatedly at short intervals so that the full dose is taken within a specified period, usually one day. Synonym: fractional dose. (05 Mar 2000) |
| fractional epidural anaesthesia | Insertion of a catheter into the lumbar or caudal epidural space for the repeated injection of local anaesthetic solutions as a means of prolonging duration of anaesthesia. Synonym: fractional epidural anaesthesia. (05 Mar 2000) |
| fractional spinal anaesthesia | Insertion of a catheter into the spinal subarachnoid space and leaving it in situ to permit serial intermittent injection of local anaesthetic solution for prolonged spinal anaesthesia. Synonym: fractional spinal anaesthesia. (05 Mar 2000) |
| fractional sterilization | Exposure to a temperature of 100캜 (flowing steam) for a definite period, usually an hour, on each of several days; at each heating the developed bacteria are destroyed; spores, which are unaffected, germinate during the intervening periods and are subsequently destroyed. Synonym: discontinuous sterilization, intermittent sterilization, tyndallization. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adaptor hypothesis | A hypothesis, proposed by F.H.C. Crick, that an adaptor molecule must be present between the information-containing DNA and the protein being synthesised. (05 Mar 2000) |
| altered self hypothesis | The hypothesis that the T-cell receptor in MHC mediated phenomena recognises a syngeneic MHC Class I or Class II molecule after modification by a virus or certain chemicals. See: MHC restriction. (18 Nov 1997) |
| alternative hypothesis | In Neyman-Pearson testing of a hypothesis, the hypothesis or family of hypotheses about the numerical value of a parameter if and only if the null hypothesis is rejected as untenable. (05 Mar 2000) |
| autocrine hypothesis | That tumour cells containing viral oncogenes may have encoded a growth factor, normally produced by other cell types, and thereby produce the factor autonomously, leading to uncontrolled proliferation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Avogadro's hypothesis | <physics> The hypothesis that equal volumes of two different gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules. (02 Jan 1998) |
| Bayesian hypothesis | An array of surmised values of a parameter to be severally explored in the light of a current set of data, with logical symmetry being preserved among all. The merits of each hypothesis entertained are based on quantity, the prior probability. The probability of the data conditional on the hypothesis is computed as the conditional probability for each; the product of the two for each hypothesis is the joint probability, and the ratio of each joint probability to the sum of all the joint probabilities is the posterior probability for that hypothesis. Unlike the Neyman-Pearson test of hypotheses, the answer is a statement about the hypothesis, not about the sample conditional on the hypothesis. No hypothesis is preferred or prevails by default. The procedure may be applied recursively any number of times, as the data becomes available. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Makeham's hypothesis | A development of Gompertz' hypothesis as to the force of mortality following some mathematical law. Makeham assumed that death was the consequence of two generally coexisting causes: 1) chance; 2) a deterioration or increased inability to withstand destruction. The first of these is constant, the second is an increasing geometrical progression. (05 Mar 2000) |