| plate | 1. A flat, or nearly flat, piece of metal, the thickness of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate. 2. Metallic armor composed of broad pieces. "Mangled . . . Through plate and mail." (Milton) 3. Domestic vessels and utensils, as flagons, dishes, cups, etc, wrought in gold or silver. 4. Metallic ware which is plated, in distinction from that which is genuine silver or gold. 5. A small, shallow, and usually circular, vessel of metal or wood, or of earth glazed and baked, from which food is eaten at table. 6. [Cf. Sp. Plata silver] A piece of money, usually silver money. "Realms and islands were as plates dropp'd from his pocket." 7. A piece of metal on which anything is engraved for the purpose of being printed; hence, an impression from the engraved metal; as, a book illustrated with plates; a fashion plate. 8. A page of stereotype, electrotype, or the like, for printing from; as, publisher's plates. 9. That part of an artificial set of teeth which fits to the mouth, and holds the teeth in place. It may be of gold, platinum, silver, rubber, celluloid, etc. 10. A horizontal timber laid upon a wall, or upon corbels projecting from a wall, and supporting the ends of other timbers; also used specifically of the roof plate which supports the ends of the roof trusses or, in simple work, the feet of the rafters. 11. A roundel of silver or tinctured argent. 12. <photography> A sheet of glass, porcelain, metal, etc, with a coating that is sensitive to light. 13. A prize giving to the winner in a contest. Plate is sometimes used in an adjectival sense or in combination, the phrase or compound being in most cases of obvious signification; as, plate basket or plate-basket, plate rack or plate-rack. Home plate. <medicine> A wheel, the rim and hub of which are connected by a continuous plate of metal, instead of by arms or spokes. Origin: OF. Plate a plate of metal, a cuirsas, F. Plat a plate, a shallow vessel of silver, other metal, or earth, fr. Plat flat, Gr. See Place. 1. To cover or overlay with gold, silver, or other metals, either by a mechanical process, as hammering, or by a chemical process, as electrotyping. 2. To cover or overlay with plates of metal; to arm with metal for defense. "Thus plated in habiliments of war." (Shak) 3. To adorn with plated metal; as, a plated harness. 4. To beat into thin, flat pieces, or laminae. 5. To calender; as, to plate paper. Origin: Plated; Plating. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| plate-gilled | <marine biology, zoology> Having flat, or leaf like, gills, as the bivalve mollusks. (19 Mar 1998) |
| plate of modiolus | A bony plate, the continuation of the modiolus and of the septum between the convolutions of the spiral canal of the cochlea extending upward toward the cupola, forming with the hamulus the helicotrema. Synonym: lamina modioli. (05 Mar 2000) |
| muscle plate | <anatomy> A muscular segment; one of the zones into which the muscles of the trunk, especially in fishes, are divided; a myocomma. One of the embryonic muscular segments arising from the protovertebrae; also, one of the protovertebrae themselves. The muscular system of one metamere of an articulate. See: Myotomy. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| cutis plate | The area of skin innervated by a single posterior spinal nerve (sensory nerve). (27 Sep 1997) |
| prechordal plate | A small area immediately rostral to the cephalic tip of the notochord where ectoderm and endoderm are in contact; when turned under the growing head, it forms the pharyngeal membrane. See: oral plate. Synonym: prechordal plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| prochordal plate | A small area immediately rostral to the cephalic tip of the notochord where ectoderm and endoderm are in contact; when turned under the growing head, it forms the pharyngeal membrane. See: oral plate. Synonym: prechordal plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Salter-Harris classification of epiphysial plate injuries | The classification of epiphysial plate injuries into five groups (I to V), according to the pattern of damage to epiphysis, physis, and/or metaphysis; the classification correlates with different prognoses regarding the effects of the injury on subsequent growth and subsequent deformity of the epiphysis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| secondary spiral plate | A ridge on the outer wall of the first turn of the cochlea opposite the spiral lamina. Synonym: lamina spiralis secundaria, secondary spiral plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| segmental plate | In a young embryo, the thickened dorsal portion of the undifferentiated paraxial mesoderm which becomes metamerically divided to form the mesodermal somites. Synonym: segmental plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sieve plate | Perforated end walls separating the component cells (sieve elements) that make up the phloem sieve tubes in vascular plants. The perforations permit the flow of water and dissolved organic solutes along the tube and are lined with callose. The plates are readily blocked by further deposition of callose when the sieve tube is stressed or damaged. (18 Nov 1997) |
| sole-plate ending | The specialised postsynaptic region of a muscle cell. The motor endplate is immediately across the synaptic cleft from the presynaptic axon terminal. Among its anatomical specializations are junctional folds which harbor a high density of cholinergic receptors. See: neuromuscular junction (12 Dec 1998) |
| spiral plate | A double plate of bone winding spirally around the modiolus dividing the spiral canal of the cochlea incompletely into two, scala tympani and scala vestibuli; between the two plates of this lamina the fibres of the cochlear nerve reach the spiral organ (of Corti). Synonym: lamina spiralis ossea, spiral plate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| nail plate | 1. <anatomy> The horny scale of plate of epidermis at the end of the fingers and toes of man and many apes. "His nayles like a briddes claws were." (Chaucer) The nails are strictly homologous with hoofs and claws. When compressed, curved, and pointed, they are called talons or claws, and the animal bearing them is said to be unguiculate; when they incase the extremities of the digits they are called hoofs, and the animal is ungulate. 2. <ornithology, zoology> The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera. The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds. 3. A slender, pointed piece of metal, usually with a head, used for fastening pieces of wood or other material together, by being driven into or through them. The different sorts of nails are named either from the use to which they are applied, from their shape, from their size, or from some other characteristic, as shingle, floor, ship-carpenters', and horseshoe nails, roseheads, diamonds, fourpenny, tenpenny (see Penny), chiselpointed, cut, wrought, or wire nails, etc. 4. A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the sixteenth of a yard. Nail ball, a round projectile with an iron bolt protruding to prevent it from turning in the gun. Nail plate, iron in plates from which cut nails are made. On the nail, in hand; on the spot; immediately; without delay or time of credit; as, to pay money on the nail. "You shall have ten thousand pounds on the nail." . To hit the nail on the head, to hit most effectively; to do or say a thing in the right way. Origin: AS. Naegel, akin to D. Nagel, OS OHG. Nagal, G. Nagel, Icel. Nagl, nail (in sense 1), nagli nail (in sense 3), Sw. Nagel nail (in senses 1 and 3), Dan. Nagle, Goth. Ganagljan to nail, Lith. Nagas nail (in sense 1), Russ. Nogote, L. Unguis, Gr, Skr. Nakha. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| neural plate | <embryology> A region of embryonic ectodermal cells, called neuroectoderm, that lie directly above the notochord. During neurulation, they change shape, so as to produce an infolding of the neural plate (the neural fold) that then seals to form the neural tube. (04 Jul 1999) |