| half-breed | A person who is blooded; the offspring of parents of different races, especially of the American Indian and the white race. See: Half-blooded. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| half-chair form | See: Haworth conformational formulas of cyclic sugars. (05 Mar 2000) |
| half cystine | Refers to one-half of a cystine molecule or of a cystinyl residue in a protein or peptide. (05 Mar 2000) |
| half-deck | 1. <zoology> A shell of the genus Crepidula; a boat shell. See Boat shell. 2. See Half deck, under Deck. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| half-fish | <zoology> A salmon in its fifth year of growth. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| half-glass spectacles | Spectacles, used for reading, in which the upper portion of the lenses are removed. Synonym: clerical spectacles, pantoscopic spectacles, pulpit spectacles. (05 Mar 2000) |
| half-hapten | A substance that elicits an antigen-antibody reaction, but no precipitation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| half-hearted | 1. Wanting in heart or spirit; ungenerous; unkind. 2. Lacking zeal or courage; lukewarm. (H. James) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| half-inferior | <plant biology> Of an ovary, partly below and partly above the level of attachment of the perianth and stamens. (13 Nov 1997) |
| half-life | 1. <pharmacology> The period over which the concentration of a specified chemical or drug takes to fall to half its original concentration in the specified fluid or blood. 2. <radiobiology> The time required to reduce the amount of a radionuclide to one-half the amount originally present. Physical or radioactive half-life refers to reduction of activity by radioactive decay, biological half-life refers to biological elimination from the body and effective half-life refers to the combined action of radioactive decay and biological elimination. (16 Dec 1997) |
| half-moon | 1. The moon at the quarters, when half its disk appears illuminated. 2. The shape of a half-moon; a crescent. "See how in warlike muster they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings." (Milton) 3. An outwork composed of two faces, forming a salient angle whose gorge resembles a half-moon; now called a ravelin. 4. <zoology> A marine, sparoid, food fish of California (Caesiosoma Californiense). The body is ovate, blackish above, blue or gray below. Synonym: medialuna. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| half-ray | <geometry> A straight line considered as drawn from a center to an indefinite distance in one direction, the complete ray being the whole line drawn to an indefinite distance in both directions. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| half-reactions | <chemistry> The two parts of an oxidation-reduction reaction, one representing oxidation, the other reduction. (09 Jan 1998) |
| half register | <molecular biology> A misalignment between two identical sets of repeating units of nucleotides within two copies of the same chromosome (one set of repeating units per copy of the chromosome), where repeating unit A from one set is inappropriately aligned with repeating unit B on the other set, so that ABABAB on one set would be aligned with BABABA on the other set instead of the correct ABABAB with ABABAB. (13 Nov 1997) |
| half-tetrad analysis | <genetics> The analysis of tetrad chromosomes (a pair of homologous chromosomes, thus four total chromosomes) after recombination when only half of the tetrad (two of the four chromosomes) can be analysed. (13 Nov 1997) |