| overlapping reading frame | <molecular biology> Start codons in different reading frames which generate different polypeptides from the same DNA sequence. (09 Oct 1997) |
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| overlay | 1. To lay, or spread, something over or across; hence, to cover; to overwhelm; to press excessively upon. "When any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it." (Sir W. Raleigh) "As when a cloud his beams doth overlay." (Spenser) "Framed of cedar overlaid with gold." (Milton) "And overlay With this portentous bridge the dark abyss." (Milton) 2. To smother with a close covering, or by lying upon. "This woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it." (1 Kings III. 19) "A heap of ashes that o'erlays your fire." (Dryden) 3. To put an overlay on. Origin: Overlaid; Overlaying. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| overlay denture | A complete denture that is supported by both soft tissue and natural teeth that have been altered so as to permit the denture to fit over them. The altered teeth may have been fitted with short or long copings, locking devices, or connecting bars. Synonym: bar joint denture, hybrid prosthesis, overdenture, telescopic denture. (05 Mar 2000) |
| overlearning | Learning in which practice proceeds beyond the point where the act can just be performed with the required degree of excellence. (12 Dec 1998) |
| overlie | To lie over or upon; specifically, to suffocate by lying upon; as, to overlie an infant. "A woman by negligence overlieth her child in her sleeping." (Chaucer) Origin: Overlay; Overlain; Overlying. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| overnight capital cost | The capital cost of a project if it could be constructed overnight. This cost does not include the interest cost of funds used during construction. (05 Dec 1998) |
| overpressure | Excessive pressure or urging. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| overproduction theory | The loss or destruction of a part or element in the organic world is likely to result in compensatory replacement and overproduction of tissue during the process of regeneration or repair (or both), as in the formation of callus when a fractured bone heals. Synonym: overproduction theory. (05 Mar 2000) |
| overresponse | An abnormally strong reaction to a stimulus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| overriding | 1. Slippage of the lower fragment of a broken long bone upward and alongside the proximal portion. 2. Obsolete term denoting a foetal head which is palpable above the symphysis because of cephalopelvic disproportion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| overriding aorta | A congenitally malpositioned aorta whose origin straddles the ventricular septum and so receives ejected blood from the right ventricle as well as from the left; it is found especially in tetralogy of Fallot. (05 Mar 2000) |
| overripe cataract | A cataract in which the lens cortex becomes liquid, with the nucleus gravitating within the capsule (Morgagni's cataract). Synonym: overripe cataract. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oversensing | Sensing of electrical or magnetic signals, which normally should not be sensed by a pacemaker, but result in inappropriate inhibition of the pacemaker's output. (05 Mar 2000) |
| overshoot | 1. Generally, any initial change, in response to a sudden step change in some factor, that is greater than the steady-state response to the new level of that factor; common in systems in which inertia or a time lag in negative feedback outweighs any damping that may be present. Changes in a negative direction are sometimes distinguished by the term undershoot, and the two may alternate in an oscillatory fashion, as in the transient oscillations of a pendulum when released from an initial displacement. 2. Momentary reversal of the membrane potential of a cell (inside becoming positive rather than negative relative to the outside) during an action potential; considered a form of overshoot because, before discovery of overshoot, excitation was thought merely to depolarise the membrane to zero transmembrane potential. (05 Mar 2000) |
| oversight | 1. Watchful care; superintendence; general supervision. 2. An overlooking; an omission; an error. 3. Escape from an overlooked peril. "His fool-happy oversight." Synonym: Superintendence, supervision, inspection, overlooking, inadvertence, neglect, mistake, error, omission. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |