| efficacy | Strength, effectiveness. The ability of a drug to control or cure an illness. Efficacy should be distinguished from activity (see), which is limited to a drug's immediate effects on the microbe triggering the disease. (09 Oct 1997) |
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| efficiency | 1. The quality of being efficient or producing an effect or effects; efficient power; effectual agency. "The manner of this divine efficiency being far above us." (Hooker) 2. <mechanics> The ratio of useful work to energy expended. Efficiency of a heat engine, the ratio of the work done an engine, to the work due to the heat supplied to it. Origin: L. Efficientia. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| efficiency, organizational | The capacity of an organization, institution, or business to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of energy, time, money, personnel, materiel, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| efficient | Serving as or characteristic of an immediate agent in the production of an event, causally productive. (18 Nov 1997) |
| efflate | To fill with breath; to puff up. Origin: L. Efflatus, p. P. Of efflare to blow or breathe out; ex + flare to blow. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| efflation | The act of filling with wind; a breathing or puffing out; a puff, as of wind. "A soft efflation of celestial fire." (Parnell) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| effleurage | A stroking movement in massage. Origin: Fr. Effleurer, to touch lightly (05 Mar 2000) |
| effloresce | 1. To blossom forth. 2. <chemistry> To change on the surface, or throughout, to a whitish, mealy, or crystalline powder, from a gradual decomposition, especially. From the loss of water, on simple exposure to the air; as, Glauber's salts, and many others, effloresce. 3. To become covered with a whitish crust or light crystallization, from a slow chemical change between some of the ingredients of the matter covered and an acid proceeding commonly from an external source; as, the walls of limestone caverns sometimes effloresce with nitrate of calcium in consequence of the action in consequence of nitric acid formed in the atmosphere. Origin: L. Efflorescere to bloom, blossom; ex + florescere to begin to blossom, incho, fr. Florere to blossom, fr. Flos a flower. See Flower. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| efflorescence | 1. <botany> Flowering, or state of flowering; the blooming of flowers; blowth. 2. <medicine> A redness of the skin; eruption, as in rash, measles, smallpox, scarlatina, etc. 3. <chemistry> The formation of the whitish powder or crust on the surface of efflorescing bodies, as salts, etc. The powder or crust thus formed. Origin: F. Efflorescence. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| efflorescent | Denoting a crystalline body that gradually changes to a powder by losing its water of crystallization on exposure to a dry atmosphere. (05 Mar 2000) |
| efflower | To remove the epidermis of (a skin) with a concave knife, blunt in its middle part, as in making chamois leather. Origin: Cf. F. Effleurer. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| effluence | 1. A flowing out, or emanation. 2. That which flows or issues from any body or substance; issue; efflux. "Bright effluence of bright essence increate!" (Milton) "And, as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the effluence of these two mortal hearts, it vanished with their sorrow." (Hawthorne) Origin: Cf. F. Effluence. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| effluent | Liquid waste from sewage treatment or industrial processes, especiallysuch liquid waste that is released into a river or other waterway. (09 Oct 1997) |
| effluvium | Origin: L, a flowing out, fr. Effluere to flow out. See Effluent. Subtile or invisible emanation; exhalation perceived by the sense of smell; especially, noisome or noxious exhalation; as, the effluvium from diseased or putrefying bodies, or from ill drainage. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| effort | 1. An exertion of strength or power, whether physical or mental, in performing an act or aiming at an object; more or less strenuous endeavor; struggle directed to the accomplishment of an object; as, an effort to scale a wall. "We prize the stronger effort of his power." (Pope) 2. <mechanics> A force acting on a body in the direction of its motion. Synonym: Endeavor, exertion, struggle, strain, straining, attempt, trial, essay. See Attempt. Origin: F. Effort, OF. Esfort, for esfors, esforz, fr. Esforcier. See Efforce. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |