| depilation | The act or result of removing hair. Synonym: depilation. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| depilatory | Synonym: epilatory. 2. An agent that causes the falling out of hair. Synonym: epilatory. Chemical depilatory, a topically applied depilatory substance. (05 Mar 2000) |
| deplanate | <botany> Flattened; made level or even. Origin: L. Deplanetus, p. P. Of deplanare to make level. See Plane. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| deplant | To take up (plants); to transplant. Origin: Pref. De- + plan: cf. F. Deplanter, L. Deplantare to take off a twig. See Plant. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| deplantation | Act of taking up plants from beds. Origin: Cf. F. Deplantation. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| deplete | 1. <medicine> To empty or unload, as the vessels of human system, by bloodletting or by medicine. 2. To reduce by destroying or consuming the vital powers of; to exhaust, as a country of its strength or resources, a treasury of money, etc. Origin: From L. Deplere to empty out; de- + plere to fill. Forined like replete, complete. See Fill, Full. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| depletion | 1. The act or process of emptying, removal of a fluid, as the blood. 2. Exhausted state which results from excessive loss of blood. Origin: L. Deplere = to empty (18 Nov 1997) |
| depletion method | <molecular biology, technique> A lab technique to isolate mRNA molecules from a specific gene by hybridising all of the mRNA molecules from a cell to a specific segment of DNA. The one mRNA molecule type which actually sticks is the one looked for. (09 Oct 1997) |
| depletion response | Subnormal metabolic response to trauma in a person whose physiologic processes are already depressed by disease. (05 Mar 2000) |
| deploy | To open out; to unfold; to spread out (a body of troops) in such a way that they shall display a wider front and less depth; the reverse of ploy; as, to deploy a column of troops into line of battle. Origin: F. Deployer; pref. De = des (L. Dis) + ployer, equiv. To plier to fold, fr. L. Plicare. See Ply, and cf. Display. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| deplumate | <zoology> Destitute or deprived of features; deplumed. Origin: LL. Diplumatus, p. P. Of deplumare. See Deplume. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| deplumation | 1. The stripping or falling off of plumes or feathers. 2. <medicine> A disease of the eyelids, attended with loss of the eyelashes. See: Deplumate. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| depolarisation | The process or act of neutralising polarity, depriving of polarity, or the result of such action; reduction to an unpolarised condition. <physiology> The reversal of the resting potential in excitable cell membranes when stimulated i.e., the tendency of the cell membrane potential to become positive with respect to the potential outside the cell. A positive shift in a cells resting potential (that is normally negative), thus making it numerically smaller and less polarized, for example 90mV to 50mV. <optics> Depolarisation of light, a change in the plane of polarization of rays, especially by a crystalline medium, such that the light which had been extinguished by the analyser reappears as if the polarization had been anulled. The word is inappropriate, as the ray does not return to the unpolarised condition. Origin: Cf. F. Depolarisation. (27 Oct 1998) |
| depolarise | 1. <optics> To deprive of polarity; to reduce to an unpolarised condition. This word has been inaccurately applied in optics to describe the effect of a polarising medium, as a crystalline plate, in causing the reappearance of a ray, in consequence of a change in its plane of polarisation, which previously to the change was intercepted by the analyser. 2. <physics> To free from polarisation, as the negative plate of the voltaic battery. Origin: F. Depolariser. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| depolariser | <physics> A substance used to prevent polarisation, as upon the negative plate of a voltaic battery. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |