| inherit | 1. To take by descent from an ancestor; to take by inheritance; to take as heir on the death of an ancestor or other person to whose estate one succeeds; to receive as a right or title descendible by law from an ancestor at his decease; as, the heir inherits the land or real estate of his father; the eldest son of a nobleman inherits his father's title; the eldest son of a king inherits the crown. 2. To receive or take by birth; to have by nature; to derive or acquire from ancestors, as mental or physical qualities; as, he inherits a strong constitution, a tendency to disease, etc. "Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father he hath . . . Manured . . . With good store of fertile sherris." (Shak) 3. To come into possession of; to possess; to own; to enjoy as a possession. "But the meek shall inherit the earth." (Ps. Xxxvii. 11) "To bury so much gold under a tree, And never after to inherit it." (Shak) 4. To put in possession of. Origin: OE. Enheriten to inherit, to give a heritage to, OF. Enheriter to appoint as an heir, L. Inhereditare; pref. In- in + hereditare to inherit, fr. Heres heir. See Heir. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
|---|---|
| inheritable | 1. Capable of being inherited; transmissible or descendible; as, an inheritable estate or title. 2. Capable of being transmitted from parent to child; as, inheritable qualities or infirmities. 3. [Cf. OF. Enheritable, inheritable] Capable of taking by inheritance, or of receiving by descent; capable of succeeding to, as an heir. "By attainder . . . The blood of the person attainted is so corrupted as to be rendered no longer inheritable." (Blackstone) "The eldest daughter of the king is also alone inheritable to the crown on failure of issue male." (Blackstone) Inheritable blood, blood or relationship by which a person becomes qualified to be an heir, or to transmit possessions by inheritance. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| inheritance | 1. The act or state of inheriting; as, the inheritance of an estate; the inheritance of mental or physical qualities. 2. That which is or may be inherited; that which is derived by an heir from an ancestor or other person; a heritage; a possession which passes by descent. "When the man dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter." (Shak) 3. A permanent or valuable possession or blessing, especially. One received by gift or without purchase; a benefaction. "To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." (1 Pet. I. 4) 4. Possession; ownership; acquisition. "The inheritance of their loves." "To you th' inheritance belongs by right Of brother's praise; to you eke longs his love." (Spenser) 5. <biology> Transmission and reception by animal or plant generation. 6. A perpetual or continuing right which a man and his heirs have to an estate; an estate which a man has by descent as heir to another, or which he may transmit to another as his heir; an estate derived from an ancestor to an heir in course of law. The word inheritance (used simply) is mostly confined to the title to land and tenements by a descent. "Men are not proprietors of what they have, merely for themselves; their children have a title to part of it which comes to be wholly theirs when death has put an end to their parents' use of it; and this we call inheritance." (Locke) Origin: Cf. OF. Enheritance. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| inherited | Derived from a preformed genetic code present in the parents. Contrast with acquired. (05 Mar 2000) |
| inherited albumin variants | Types of human serum albumin, distinguished by characteristic mobility patterns on electrophoresis; each type is due to a mutation of a gene controlling albumin synthesis; the mutant genes are codominant with the normal gene for albumin A, and the group forms a system of genetic polymorphism; types include: albumin b (slow), found occasionally in persons of European ancestry; albumin Ghent (fast), found first at Ghent, Belgium; albumin Mexico (slow), found in Indians of Mexico and the southwestern United States; albumin Naskapi (fast), found in the Naskapi and other Indians of northern North America; and albumin Reading (fast), found first at Reading, England. (05 Mar 2000) |
| inherited character | A single attribute of an animal or plant that is transmitted at one locus from generation to generation in accordance with Mendel's law. See: gene. Synonym: unit character. (05 Mar 2000) |
| inhibin | <hormone> Polypeptide hormone secreted by the hypophysis, that selectively suppresses the secretion of pituitary follicle-stimulating hormone. The molecule has two subunits (14 & 18 kD) and is a product of the gene family that includes TGF _. There are two forms, __A and __B, the _ subunit being shared with activin. Inhibin is now, on the basis of gene knockout experiments, considered to be a tumour suppressor, the key gene being that for inhibin _. (18 Nov 1997) |
| inhibit | To curb or restrain. (05 Mar 2000) |
| inhibitine | <biochemistry> Dipeptide found at millimolar concentration in vertebrate muscle. (18 Nov 1997) |
| inhibiting antibody | An "incomplete" form of antibody that may coat antigen, but which according to the "lattice theory" does not have a second receptor for attachment to another molecule of antigen; in the case of Rh+ erythrocytes, such an anti-Rh antibody may coat the cells but not cause them to agglutinate in saline; however, agglutination does occur when such coated cells are suspended in serum or other protein media, such as albumin, therefore called serum agglutinin. Synonym: incomplete antibody, inhibiting antibody. (05 Mar 2000) |
| inhibition | 1. Arrest or restraint of a process. 2. <psychology> The interference with or prevention of a behavioural or verbal response even though the stimulus for that response is present; in psychoanalysis the unconscious restraining of an instinctual process. Origin: L. Inhibere = to restrain, habere = to hold (04 Jul 1999) |
| inhibition factor | <growth factor> A soluble, nondialysable factor that is produced by sensitised lymphocytes following exposure to a specific antigen. It inhibits macrophage migration and causes adherence. It was originally defined on the basis of inhibition of emigration of mononuclear cells from capillary (haematocrit) tubes, more recently a 13 kD protein with migration inhibitory activity has been isolated. Acronym: MIF Synonym: inhibition factor. (22 Sep 2002) |
| inhibitor | <chemistry, pharmacology> A molecule which represses or prevents another molecule from engaging in a reaction. See: inhibition. (09 Oct 1997) |
| inhibitory | Of or pertaining to, or producing, inhibition; consisting in inhibition; tending or serving to inhibit; as, the inhibitory action of the pneumogastric on the respiratory center. "I would not have you consider these criticisms as inhibitory. <physiology> " (Lamb) Inhibitory nerves, those nerves which modify, inhibit, or suppress a motor or secretory act already in progress. Origin: LL. Inhibitorius: cf. F. Inhibitoire. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| inhibitory fibres | Nerve fibre's that inhibit the activity of the nerve cells with which they have synaptic connections, or of the effector tissue (smooth muscle, heart muscle, glands) in which they terminate. (05 Mar 2000) |