| distractile | <botany> Tending or serving to draw apart. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| distraction | <procedure> The cognitive strategy of focusing attention on stimuli other than pain or negative emotions that accompany pain. (16 Dec 1997) |
| distraction conus | A conus in which the optic nerve passes through the scleral canal in a markedly oblique direction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distress | 1. Extreme pain or suffering; anguish of body or mind; as, to suffer distress from the gout, or from the loss of friends. "Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress." (Shak) 2. That which occasions suffering; painful situation; misfortune; affliction; misery. "Affliction's sons are brothers in distress." (Burns) 3. A state of danger or necessity; as, a ship in distress, from leaking, loss of spars, want of provisions or water, etc. 4. The act of distraining; the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of a wrongdoer, by way of pledge for redress of an injury, or for the performance of a duty, as for nonpayment of rent or taxes, or for injury done by cattle, etc. The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction. "If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle." (Spenser) "The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for." (Blackstone) Abuse of distress. See Abuse. Synonym: Affliction, suffering, pain, agony, misery, torment, anguish, grief, sorrow, calamity, misfortune, trouble, adversity. See Affliction. Origin: OE. Destresse, distresse, OF. Destresse, destrece, F. Detresse, OF. Destrecier to distress, (assumed) LL. Districtiare, fr. L. Districtus, p. P. Of distringere. See Distrain, and cf. Stress. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| distributed effort | In psychology, learning that involves small units of work and interpolated rest periods, as contrasted with massed learning, in which the individual works continually until the skill is mastered. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distributing artery | <anatomy, artery> An artery with a tunica media composed principally of circularly arranged smooth muscle. Synonym: distributing artery, medium artery. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distribution | 1. The specific location or arrangement of continuing or successive objects or events in space or time. 2. The extent of a ramifying structure such as an artery or nerve and its branches. 3. The geographical range of an organism or disease. 4. Probability. Origin: L. Distributio (11 Jan 1998) |
| distribution coefficient | The ratio of concentrations of a substance in two immiscible phases at equilibrium; the basis of many chromatographic separation procedures. Synonym: partition coefficient. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distribution curve | A systematic grouping of data into classes or categories according to the frequency of occurrence of each successive value or ranges of such values, resulting in a graph of a frequency distribution. Synonym: frequency curve. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distribution function | <radiobiology> Function characterising the density of particles located at a given point in phase space (a combination of velocity and/or position coordinates) at a given time. The velocity-space distribution function gives the number of particles with a particular velocity, the position-space distribution function is synonymous with the particle density in position-space. Different combinations of position and spatial coordinates are useful in different problems. (09 Oct 1997) |
| distribution leukocytosis | An abnormally large proportion of one or more types of leukocytes. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distribution volume | The volume throughout which an added tracer substance appears to have been evenly distributed, calculated by dividing the amount of tracer added by its concentration after equilibration. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distributive | 1. Tending to distribute; serving to divide and assign in portions; dealing to each his proper share. "Distributive justice." 2. <logic> Assigning the species of a general term. 3. Expressing separation; denoting a taking singly, not collectively; as, a distributive adjective or pronoun, such as each, either, every; a distributive numeral, as (Latin) bini (two by two). <mathematics> Distributive operation See Fellowship. Origin: Cf. F. Distributif. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| distributive analysis | The analysis of information gained about the patient and its distribution by the physician, as indicated by the patient's complaint and symptoms. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distributive shock | <physiology> A form of shock (low oxygen delivery to the tissues) that results from a decline in vascular tone. This net result is pooling of unoxygenated blood in the tissues. (11 Jan 1998) |