| saturate | Filled to repletion; saturated; soaked. "Dries his feathers saturate with dew." (Cowper) "The sand beneath our feet is saturate With blood of martyrs." (Longfellow) Origin: L. Saturatus, p. P. 1. To cause to become completely penetrated, impregnated, or soaked; to fill fully; to sate. "Innumerable flocks and herbs covered that vast expanse of emerald meadow saturated with the moisture of the Atlantic." (Macaulay) "Fill and saturate each kind With good according to its mind." (Emerson) 2. <chemistry> To satisfy the affinity of; to cause to become inert by chemical combination with all that it can hold; as, to saturate phosphorus with chlorine. Origin: L. Saturatus, p.p. Of saturate to saturate, fr. Satur full of food, sated. See Satire. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| saturated | A condition in which all easily drained voids (pores) between soil particles are temporarily or permanently filled with water, significant saturation during the growing season is considered to be usually one week or more. (09 Oct 1997) |
| saturated colour | A colour containing a minimum amount of whiteness. (05 Mar 2000) |
| saturated fat | A fatty acid with all potential hydrogen binding sites filled (totally hydrogenated fat). These hold the highest risk for the development of atherosclerosis. (27 Sep 1997) |
| saturated fatty acid | A fatty acid, the carbon chain of which contains no ethylenic or other unsaturated linkages between carbon atoms (e.g., stearic acid and palmitic acid); called saturated because it is incapable of absorbing any more hydrogen. (05 Mar 2000) |
| saturated fatty acids | In eukaryotic membranes refers to stearic, palmitic and myristic acids, that are linear aliphatic chains with no double bonds. Prokaryotes have numerous branched chain saturated fatty acids. (18 Nov 1997) |
| saturated hydrocarbon | A hydrocarbon that contains the greatest possible number of hydrogen atoms, so that the molecule contains neither rings nor multiple bonds. (05 Mar 2000) |
| saturated soil | A condition in which all easily drained voids (pores) between soil particles are temporarily or permanently filled with water, significant saturation during the growing season is considered to be usually one week or more. (09 Oct 1997) |
| saturated solution | A solution that contains all of a substance capable of dissolving; a solution of a substance in equilibrium with an excess undissolved substance. (05 Mar 2000) |
| saturated steam | Steam at the temperature that corresponds to its boiling temperature at the same pressure. (05 Dec 1998) |
| saturated steroid 6 alpha-hydroxylase | <enzyme> Acts on 5 alpha-androstane-3 beta,17 beta-diol and 5 alpha-pregnan-3 beta-ol-20-one; does not require cytochrome p-450 Registry number: EC 1.14.99.- Synonym: sat steroid 6alpha-hydroxylase (26 Jun 1999) |
| saturation | 1. The act of saturating, or the state of being saturating; complete penetration or impregnation. 2. <chemistry> The act, process, or result of saturating a substance, or of combining it to its fullest extent. 3. <optics> Freedom from mixture or dilution with white; purity; said of colours. The degree of saturation of a colour is its relative purity, or freedom from admixture with white. Origin: L. Saturatio: cf. F. Saturation. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| saturation analysis | General term for an assay in which a binder competes for labelled versus unlabelled ligand; following separation of free and bound ligand, the ligand (the analyte assayed) is quantitated by relating bound and unbound ratios to known standards. See: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, radioreceptor assay, immunoassay, enzyme-multiplied immunoassay technique, radioimmunoassay. Synonym: displacement analysis, saturation analysis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| saturation index | An indication of the relative concentration of haemoglobin in the red blood cells, calculated as: grams of haemoglobin per 100 ml (expressed as percent of normal) ÷ haematocrit value (expressed as percent of normal) = saturation index The normal index for adults and infants is 0.97 to 1.02; in primary and secondary anaemia, the index is usually considerably less than 0.97. (05 Mar 2000) |
| saturation of receptors | Saturation, the state in which all receptors are effectively occupied all the time, can be said to occur in a simple binding equilibrium when the concentration of ligand is more than 5 times the Kd value, although strictly this will only be true at infinite ligand concentration. (18 Nov 1997) |