| plate | 1. A flat, or nearly flat, piece of metal, the thickness of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate. 2. Metallic armor composed of broad pieces. "Mangled . . . Through plate and mail." (Milton) 3. Domestic vessels and utensils, as flagons, dishes, cups, etc, wrought in gold or silver. 4. Metallic ware which is plated, in distinction from that which is genuine silver or gold. 5. A small, shallow, and usually circular, vessel of metal or wood, or of earth glazed and baked, from which food is eaten at table. 6. [Cf. Sp. Plata silver] A piece of money, usually silver money. "Realms and islands were as plates dropp'd from his pocket." 7. A piece of metal on which anything is engraved for the purpose of being printed; hence, an impression from the engraved metal; as, a book illustrated with plates; a fashion plate. 8. A page of stereotype, electrotype, or the like, for printing from; as, publisher's plates. 9. That part of an artificial set of teeth which fits to the mouth, and holds the teeth in place. It may be of gold, platinum, silver, rubber, celluloid, etc. 10. A horizontal timber laid upon a wall, or upon corbels projecting from a wall, and supporting the ends of other timbers; also used specifically of the roof plate which supports the ends of the roof trusses or, in simple work, the feet of the rafters. 11. A roundel of silver or tinctured argent. 12. <photography> A sheet of glass, porcelain, metal, etc, with a coating that is sensitive to light. 13. A prize giving to the winner in a contest. Plate is sometimes used in an adjectival sense or in combination, the phrase or compound being in most cases of obvious signification; as, plate basket or plate-basket, plate rack or plate-rack. Home plate. <medicine> A wheel, the rim and hub of which are connected by a continuous plate of metal, instead of by arms or spokes. Origin: OF. Plate a plate of metal, a cuirsas, F. Plat a plate, a shallow vessel of silver, other metal, or earth, fr. Plat flat, Gr. See Place. 1. To cover or overlay with gold, silver, or other metals, either by a mechanical process, as hammering, or by a chemical process, as electrotyping. 2. To cover or overlay with plates of metal; to arm with metal for defense. "Thus plated in habiliments of war." (Shak) 3. To adorn with plated metal; as, a plated harness. 4. To beat into thin, flat pieces, or laminae. 5. To calender; as, to plate paper. Origin: Plated; Plating. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| plate of modiolus | A bony plate, the continuation of the modiolus and of the septum between the convolutions of the spiral canal of the cochlea extending upward toward the cupola, forming with the hamulus the helicotrema. Synonym: lamina modioli. (05 Mar 2000) |
| plate-gilled | <marine biology, zoology> Having flat, or leaf like, gills, as the bivalve mollusks. (19 Mar 1998) |
| plateau | A flat elevated segment of a graphic record. Origin: Fr. (05 Mar 2000) |
| plateau iris | In angle-closure glaucoma, a flat appearance of the iris rather than a forward convexity. (05 Mar 2000) |
| plateau phase | <oncology> Stable stage of disease in multiple myeloma following good response to anti-cancer treatment. (31 Dec 1997) |
| plateau pulse | A slow, sustained pulse. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Plateau, Joseph Antoine Ferdinand | <person> Belgian physicist, 1801-1883. See: Plateau-Talbot law. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Plateau-Talbot law | When successive light stimuli follow each other sufficiently rapidly to become fused, their apparent brightness is diminished. (05 Mar 2000) |
| platelet | <haematology> A discoid cell (3m diameter) found in large numbers in blood, important for blood coagulation and for haemostasis by repairing breaches (small breaks) in the walls of blood vessels. Platelet _ granules contain lysosomal enzymes, dense granules contain ADP (a potent platelet aggregating factor) and serotonin (a vasoactive amine). They also release platelet-derived growth factor which presumably contributes to later repair processes by stimulating fibroblast proliferation. Synonym: thrombocytes. (09 Oct 1997) |
| platelet activation | A series of progressive, overlapping events triggered by exposure of the platelets to subendothelial tissue. These events include shape change, adhesiveness, aggregation, and release reactions. When carried through to completion, these events lead to the formation of a stable haemostatic plug. (12 Dec 1998) |
| platelet actomyosin | The contractile protein of platelets, responsible for clot retraction, platelet aggregation, and release of ADP and other biologic amines essential to platelet function. Synonym: thrombosthenin. (05 Mar 2000) |
| platelet adhesiveness | The process whereby platelets adhere to something other than platelets, e.g., collagen, basement membranes, microfibrils, or other "foreign" surfaces. (12 Dec 1998) |
| platelet aggregation | The attachment of platelets to one another. This clumping together can be induced by a number of agents (e.g., thrombin, collagen) and is part of the mechanism leading to the formation of a thrombus. (12 Dec 1998) |
| platelet aggregation inhibitors | Drugs or agents which antagonise or impair any mechanism leading to blood platelet aggregation, whether during the phases of activation and shape change or following the dense-granule release reaction and stimulation of the prostaglandin-thromboxane system. (12 Dec 1998) |
| Abbe test plate | <equipment> A long, wedge-shaped coverslip about 0.20 mm thick at one end and 0.10 to 0.12 mm at the other end coated chemically with a silver film on which are ruled horizontal lines. at each variation in thickness of 0.01 mm there are vertical lines. By means of oblique illumination and by focusing on different portions of the plate, it is possible to determine the optimum coverslip thickness for any objective and also, for microscopes with drawtubes, the tube length for best objective performance. The approximate freedom from spherical and chromatic aberrations can also be estimated. Small isolated bits of silver near the edges of the lines form good objects for the star test (05 Aug 1998) |
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| alar plate of neural tube | The dorsal division of the lateral walls of the neural tube in the embryo; it gives rise to neurons relaying afferent impulses to higher centres; in the adult such neurons compose the sensory nuclei of the spinal cord and brainstem. Synonym: lamina alaris, alar plate of neural tube, dorsolateral plate of neural tube, lamina dorsalis, wing plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| anal plate | The anal portion of the cloacal plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| axial plate | The primitive streak of an embryo. (05 Mar 2000) |
| basal plate of neural tube | The ventral division of the lateral walls of the neural tube in the embryo; it contains neuroblasts giving rise to somatic and visceral motor neurons. Synonym: lamina basalis, basal plate of neural tube, lamina ventralis, ventral plate of neural tube. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bone plate | A metal bar with perforations for the insertion of screws; used to immobilise fractured segments. (05 Mar 2000) |
| buttress plate | A metal plate used to support the internal fixation of a fracture. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cardiogenic plate | The thickened layer of splanchnic mesoderm from which the cardiopericardial primordia of very young embryos are derived. (05 Mar 2000) |
| palatal plate | A partial denture major connector that has an anteroposterior width in excess of two maxillary premolars. (05 Mar 2000) |
| palatine surface of horizontal plate of palatine bone | The inferior surface of the horizontal plate of the palatine bone. Synonym: facies palatina laminae horizontalis ossis palatini. (05 Mar 2000) |
| paper plate | A thin plate of ethmoid bone forming part of the medial wall of the orbit and the lateral wall for the ethmoidal labyrinth. Synonym: lamina orbitalis ossis ethmoidalis, lamina papyracea, orbital lamina of ethmoid bone, orbital layer of ethmoid bone, orbital plate, paper plate, papyraceous plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| parachordal plate | The cartilage primordia of the base of the skull situated on either side of the cephalic part of the notochord. (05 Mar 2000) |
| ventral plate | Ventral midline thinning of the developing neural tube, a continuity between the basal laminae of either side; opposite of roof plate. Synonym: ventral plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| ventral plate of neural tube | The ventral division of the lateral walls of the neural tube in the embryo; it contains neuroblasts giving rise to somatic and visceral motor neurons. Synonym: lamina basalis, basal plate of neural tube, lamina ventralis, ventral plate of neural tube. (05 Mar 2000) |
| parietal plate | The outer of the two layers of the lateral plate mesoderm, which becomes associated with the ectoderm; the ectoderm and parietal plate mesoderm together constitute the somatopleure, the lamina of the ethmoid bone that forms the nasal septum. (05 Mar 2000) |