| hanging drop slide | <microscopy> A glass slide with a concavity or a built-up chamber which allows a drop of culture to be placed on a cover- slip inverted over the cell. It makes possible the examination of freely moving protozoa, etc., confined only by the limits of the drop and the bottom surface of the coverslip. (05 Aug 1998) |
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| drop | 1. To fall in drops. "The kindly dew drops from the higher tree, And wets the little plants that lowly dwell." (Spenser) 2. To fall, in general, literally or figuratively; as, ripe fruit drops from a tree; wise words drop from the lips. "Mutilations of which the meaning has dropped out of memory." (H. Spencer) "When the sound of dropping nuts is heard." (Bryant) 3. To let drops fall; to discharge itself in drops. "The heavens . . . Dropped at the presence of God." (Ps. Lxviii. 8) 4. To fall dead, or to fall in death. "Nothing, says Seneca, so soon reconciles us to the thoughts of our own death, as the prospect of one friend after another dropping round us." (Digby) 5. To come to an end; to cease; to pass out of mind; as, the affair dropped. 6. To come unexpectedly; with in or into; as, my old friend dropped in a moment. "Takes care to drop in when he thinks you are just seated." (Spectator) 7. To fall or be depressed; to lower; as, the point of the spear dropped a little. 8. To fall short of a mark. "Often it drops or overshoots by the disproportion of distance." (Collier) 9. To be deep in extent; to descend perpendicularly; as, her main topsail drops seventeen yards. To drop astern, to sail, row, or move down a river, or toward the sea. To drop off, to fall asleep gently; also, to die. 1. To pour or let fall in drops; to pour in small globules; to distill. "The trees drop balsam." "The recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever." (Sterne) 2. To cause to fall in one portion, or by one motion, like a drop; to let fall; as, to drop a line in fishing; to drop a courtesy. 3. To let go; to dismiss; to set aside; to have done with; to discontinue; to forsake; to give up; to omit. "They suddenly drop't the pursuit." (S. Sharp) "That astonishing ease with which fine ladies drop you and pick you up again." (Thackeray) "The connection had been dropped many years." (Sir W. Scott) "Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven." (Tennyson) 4. To bestow or communicate by a suggestion; to let fall in an indirect, cautious, or gentle manner; as, to drop hint, a word of counsel, etc. 5. To lower, as a curtain, or the muzzle of a gun, etc. 6. To send, as a letter; as, please drop me a line, a letter, word. 7. To give birth to; as, to drop a lamb. 8. To cover with drops; to variegate; to bedrop. "Show to the sun their waved coats dropped with gold." (Milton) To drop a vessel, to leave it astern in a race or a chase; to outsail it. Origin: OE. Droppen, AS. Dropan, v. I. See Drop. 1. The quantity of fluid which falls in one small spherical mass; a liquid globule; a minim; hence, also, the smallest easily measured portion of a fluid; a small quantity; as, a drop of water. "With minute drops from off the eaves." (Milton) "As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart." (Shak) "That drop of peace divine." (Keble) 2. That which resembles, or that which hangs like, a liquid drop; as a hanging diamond ornament, an earring, a glass pendant on a chandelier, a sugarplum (sometimes medicated), or a kind of shot or slug. 3. Same as Gutta. Any small pendent ornament. 4. Whatever is arranged to drop, hang, or fall from an elevated position; also, a contrivance for lowering something; as: A door or platform opening downward; a trap door; that part of the gallows on which a culprit stands when he is to be hanged; hence, the gallows itself. A machine for lowering heavy weights, as packages, coal wagons, etc, to a ship's deck. A contrivance for temporarily lowering a gas jet. A curtain which drops or falls in front of the stage of a theater, etc. A drop press or drop hammer. <machinery> The distance of the axis of a shaft below the base of a hanger. 5. Any medicine the dose of which is measured by drops; as, lavender drops. 6. The depth of a square sail; generally applied to the courses only. 7. Act of dropping; sudden fall or descent. Ague drop, Black drop. See Ague, Black. Drop by drop, in small successive quantities; in repeated portions. "Made to taste drop by drop more than the bitterness of death." . Drop curtain. See Drop. 4. Drop forging. A drop hammer; sometimes, a dead-stroke hammer; also called drop. Drop scene, a drop curtain on which a scene is painted. See Drop. Drop seed. <botany> See Amaurosis. Origin: OE. Drope, AS. Dropa; akin to OS. Dropo, D. Drop, OHG. Tropo, G. Tropfen, Icel. Dropi, Sw. Droppe; and Fr. AS. Dreopan to drip, drop; akin to OS. Driopan, D. Druipen, OHG. Triofan, G. Triefen, Icel. Drjpa. Cf. Drip, Droop. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| drop finger | An avulsion, partial or complete, of the long finger extensor from the base of the distal phalanx. Synonym: drop finger, hammer finger, mallet finger. (05 Mar 2000) |
| drop hand | Paralysis of the extensors of the wrist and fingers; most often caused by lesion of the radial nerve. Synonym: carpoptosis, carpoptosia, drop hand. (05 Mar 2000) |
| drop heart | A condition in which the heart is unduly movable and displaced downward, as distinguished from bathycardia. See: cor mobile, cor pendulum. Synonym: drop heart. Origin: cardio-+ G. Ptosis, a falling (05 Mar 2000) |
| intraspinal drop metastases | <radiology> Medulloblastoma, glioblastoma, pinealoma, ependymoma, ** intraspinal / extramedullary (12 Dec 1998) |
| open drop anaesthesia | Inhalation anaesthesia by vaporization of a liquid anaesthetic placed drop by drop on a gauze mask covering the mouth and nose. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tear drop fracture | <radiology> Avulsion of anterioinferior corner of cervical vertebral body by anterior ligament, most severe and unstable injury of the cervical spine, often the result of diving into shallow water, may be secondary to hyperflexion or hyperextension, typically at C2 see: cervical spine fractures (12 Dec 1998) |
| egg drop syndrome | <syndrome> A disease of chickens caused by an adenovirus and characterised by production of soft-shelled and shell-less eggs in apparently healthy birds. (05 Mar 2000) |
| toe-drop | Inability to dorsiflex the toes, usually due to paralysis of the toe extensor muscles. (05 Mar 2000) |
| enamel drop | A developmental anomaly in which there is a small nodule of enamel below the cementoenamel junction, usually at the bifurcation of molar teeth. Synonym: enamel drop, enamel nodule, enamel pearl. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foot-drop | Paralysis or weakness of the dorsiflexor muscles of the foot, as a consequence of which the foot falls, the toes dragging on the ground in walking; many causes, both central and peripheral. (05 Mar 2000) |