| relax | 1. To make lax or loose; to make less close, firm, rigid, tense, or the like; to slacken; to loosen; to open; as, to relax a rope or cord; to relax the muscles or sinews. "Horror . . . All his joints relaxed." (Milton) "Nor served it to relax their serried files." (Milton) 2. To make less severe or rogorous; to abate the stringency of; to remit in respect to strenuousness, esrnestness, or effort; as, to relax discipline; to relax one's attention or endeavors. "The stature of mortmain was at several times relaxed by the legilature." (Swift) 3. Hence, to relieve from attention or effort; to ease; to recreate; to divert; as, amusement relaxes the mind. 4. To relieve from constipation; to loosen; to open; as, an aperient relaxes the bowels. Synonym: To slacken, loosen, loose, remit, abate, mitigate, ease, unbend, divert. Origin: L. Relaxare; pref. Re- re- + laxare to loose, to slacken, from laxus loose. See Lax, and cf. Relay, Release. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| relaxant | 1. Lessening or reducing tension. 2. <pharmacology> An agent that lessens tension. Origin: L. Relaxare = to loosen (18 Nov 1997) |
| relaxant reversal | Use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to terminate the action of nondepolarising neuromuscular relaxants. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation | A state of relative freedom from both anxiety and skeletal muscle tension. (16 Dec 1997) |
| relaxation factor | Substance presumably involved in the return of muscle fibrils to the resting state after nervous stimulation ceases, postulated to act by withdrawing Calcium from myosin-ATPase sites. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation response | An integrated hypothalamic reaction resulting in decreased sympathetic nervous system activity which, physiologically and psychologically, is almost a mirror image of the body's response's to Cannon's emergency theory (flight or fight response); can be self-induced through the use of techniques associated with transcendental meditation, yoga, and biofeedback. See: emergency theory. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation suture | A suture so arranged that it may be loosened if the tension of the wound becomes excessive. (05 Mar 2000) |
| relaxation techniques | The use of muscular relaxation techniques in treatment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| relaxation time | Time taken for a system to return to the resting or ground state or a new equilibrium state following perturbation. Often used in context of receptor systems that have a refractory period after responding and then relax to a competent state. Can be used more precisely to mean the time for a system to change from its original equilibrium value to 1/e of this original value. (18 Nov 1997) |
| relaxed control | The ability of certain plasmids to continue to replicate after their bacteria stop dividing, theresult is a single bacteria that containshundreds of plasmids. (09 Oct 1997) |
| relaxed DNA | <molecular biology> DNA that isn't supercoiled. (09 Oct 1997) |
| relaxed mutant | A mutant bacterium that continues to synthesise RNA in a medium that lackscertain nutrients or amino acids which that sort of bacterium normallyneeds present before it can make RNA. (09 Oct 1997) |
| relaxed plasmid | A plasmid that replicatesindependently of the main bacterial chromosome and is present in 10-500 copies per cell. (09 Oct 1997) |
| relaxin | <protein> Polypeptide hormone produced by corpus luteum and found in the blood of pregnant animals. Acts, as its name suggests, to cause muscle relaxation during parturition. Human relaxin has an A chain of 24 amino acids and a B chain of 29. Has structural similarity to insulin. (18 Nov 1997) |
| relaxing enzyme | <biochemistry> Any of several enzymes, such ashelicase, that unwind DNA prior to its replication. (09 Oct 1997) |