| wasserhelle cell | A variety of chief cell, so-called because the cytoplasm contains much glycogen that is not preserved or stained in the usual preparation. Synonym: wasserhelle cell. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| Wassermann antibody | Antibody, evoked during syphilitic infections, that combines with cardiolipin in the presence of lecithin and cholesterol; it is distinct from the treponema-immobilizing antibody. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Wassermann reaction | <investigation> A complement fixation test used to diagnose syphilis. (31 Dec 1997) |
| Wassermann test | <investigation> A complement fixation test used to diagnose syphilis. (31 Dec 1997) |
| Wassermann, August von | <person> German bacteriologist, 1866-1925. See: Wassermann antibody, Wassermann reaction, Wassermann test, provocative Wassermann test. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Wassermann-fast | A term used to designate a case in which the Wassermann reaction remains positive despite all treatment. (05 Mar 2000) |
| waste | 1. Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless. "The dismal situation waste and wild." (Milton) "His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into the waste darkness of futurity." (Sir W. Scott) 2. Lying unused; unproductive; worthless; valueless; refuse; rejected; as, waste land; waste paper. "But his waste words returned to him in vain." (Spenser) "Not a waste or needless sound, Till we come to holier ground." (Milton) "Ill day which made this beauty waste." (Emerson) 3. Lost for want of occupiers or use; superfluous. "And strangled with her waste fertility." (Milton) Waste gate, a gate by which the superfluous water of a reservoir, or the like, is discharged. Waste paper. See Paper. Waste pipe, a pipe for carrying off waste, or superfluous, water or other fluids. Specifically: An escape pipe. See Escape. The outlet pipe at the bottom of a bowl, tub, sink, or the like. Waste steam. Steam which escapes the air. Exhaust steam. Waste trap, a trap for a waste pipe, as of a sink. Origin: OE. Wast, OF. Wast, from L. Vastus, influenced by the kindred German word; cf. OHG. Wuosti, G. Wust, OS. Wsti, D. Woest, AS. Weste. Cf. Vast. 1. To bring to ruin; to devastate; to desolate; to destroy. "Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted, Art made a mirror to behold my plight." (Spenser) "The Tiber Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds." (Dryden) 2. To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out. "Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness." (Num. Xiv. 33) "O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!" (Milton) "Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain." (Milton) "Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him." (Robertson) 3. To spend unnecessarily or carelessly; to employ prodigally; to expend without valuable result; to apply to useless purposes; to lavish vainly; to squander; to cause to be lost; to destroy by scattering or injury. "The younger son gathered all together, and . . . Wasted his substance with riotous living." (Luke xv. 13) "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air." (Gray) 4. To damage, impair, or injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc, to go to decay. Synonym: To squander, dissipate, lavish, desolate. Origin: OE. Wasten, OF. Waster, guaster, gaster, F. Gater to spoil, L. Vastare to devastate, to lay waste, fr. Vastus waste, desert, uncultivated, ravaged, vast, but influenced by a kindred German word; cf. OHG. Wuosten, G. Wusten, AS. Westan. See Waste. 1. The act of wasting, or the state of being wasted; a squandering; needless destruction; useless consumption or expenditure; devastation; loss without equivalent gain; gradual loss or decrease, by use, wear, or decay; as, a waste of property, time, labour, words, etc. "Waste . . . Of catel and of time." "For all this waste of wealth loss of blood." (Milton) "He will never . . . In the way of waste, attempt us again." (Shak) "Little wastes in great establishments, constantly occurring, may defeat the energies of a mighty capital." (L. Beecher) 2. That which is wasted or desolate; a devastated, uncultivated, or wild country; a deserted region; an unoccupied or unemployed space; a dreary void; a desert; a wilderness. "The wastes of Nature." "All the leafy nation sinks at last, And Vulcan rides in triumph o'er the waste." (Dryden) "The gloomy waste of waters which bears his name is his tomb and his monument." (Bancroft) 3. That which is of no value; worthless remnants; refuse. Specifically: Remnants of cops, or other refuse resulting from the working of cotton, wool, hemp, and the like, used for wiping machinery, absorbing oil in the axle boxes of railway cars, etc. 4. Spoil, destruction, or injury, done to houses, woods, fences, lands, etc, by a tenant for life or for years, to the prejudice of the heir, or of him in reversion or remainder. Waste is voluntary, as by pulling down buildings; or permissive, as by suffering them to fall for want of necessary repairs. Whatever does a lasting damage to the freehold is a waste. 5. <chemical> Old or abandoned workings, whether left as vacant space or filled with refuse. Synonym: Prodigality, diminution, loss, dissipation, destruction, devastation, havoc, desolation, ravage. Origin: OE. Waste; cf. The kindred AS. Wsten, OHG. Wsti, wuosti, G. Wuste. See Waste, &. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| waste disposal, fluid | The discarding or destroying of liquid waste products or their transformation into something useful or innocuous. (12 Dec 1998) |
| waste management | Disposal, processing, controlling, recycling, and reusing the solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes of plants, animals, humans, and other organisms. It includes control within a closed ecological system to maintain a habitable environment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| waste products | Debris resulting from a process that is of no further use to the system producing it. The concept includes materials discharged from or stored in a system in inert form as a by-product of vital activities. (12 Dec 1998) |
| waste streams | Unused solid or liquid by- products of a process. (05 Dec 1998) |
| wasted ventilation | That part of the pulmonary ventilation which is ineffective in exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide with pulmonary capillary blood; calculated as physiologic dead space multiplied by respiratory frequency. (05 Mar 2000) |
| wasteness | 1. The quality or state of being waste; a desolate state or condition; desolation. "A day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness." (Zeph. I. 15) 2. That which is waste; a desert; a waste. "Through woods and wasteness wide him daily sought." (Spenser) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wasting | Causing waste; also, undergoing waste; diminishing; as, a wasting disease; a wasting fortune. <medicine> Wasting palsy, progressive muscular atrophy. See Progressive. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| wasting disease | A graft versus host reaction in mice first observed following intravenous injection of allogeneic spleen cells into newborn animals. Synonym: wasting disease. (05 Mar 2000) |