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The Collaborative International Dictionary
irradiation

irradiation \ir*ra`di*a"tion\ ([i^]r*r[=a]`d[i^]*[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [Cf. F. irradiation.]

  1. Act of irradiating, or state of being irradiated; as, irradiation of foods with X-rays can preserve their freshness by killing the bacteria that cause spoilage .

  2. Illumination; irradiance; brilliancy.
    --Sir W. Scott.

  3. Fig.: Mental light or illumination.
    --Sir M. Hale.

  4. (Opt.) The apparent enlargement of a bright object seen upon a dark ground, due to the fact that the portions of the retina around the image are stimulated by the intense light; as when a dark spot on a white ground appears smaller, or a white spot on a dark ground larger, than it really is, esp. when a little out of focus.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
irradiation

1580s, from French irradiation, from Latin *irradiationem, noun of action from past participle stem of irradiare (see irradiate). Originally of light (literally and figuratively); of X-rays, etc., from 1901.

Wiktionary
irradiation

n. 1 An act of irradiating, or state of being irradiated. 2 (context obsolete English) illumination; irradiance; brilliance. 3 (context obsolete English) figurative: mental light or illumination. 4 (context obsolete English) the apparent enlargement of a bright object seen upon a dark ground, due to the fact that the portions of the retina around the image are stimulated by the intense light; as when a dark spot on a white ground appears smaller, or a white spot on a dark ground larger, than it really is, especially when a little out of focus. 5 (context uncountable English) a process of sterilisation whereby radiation is passed through a bag containing food, utensils, etc., to sterilise the contents.

WordNet
irradiation
  1. n. the condition of being exposed to radiation

  2. a column of light (as from a beacon) [syn: beam, beam of light, light beam, ray, ray of light, shaft, shaft of light]

  3. (physiology) the spread of sensory neural impulses in the cortex

  4. the apparent enlargement of a bright object when viewed against a dark background

  5. (Pavolvian conditioning) the elicitation of a conditioned response by stimulation similar but not identical to the original stimulus

  6. (medicine) the treatment of disease (especially cancer) by exposure to radiation from a radioactive substance [syn: radiotherapy, radiation therapy, radiation, actinotherapy]

Wikipedia
Irradiation

Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. The exposure can originate from various sources, including natural sources. Most frequently the term refers to ionizing radiation, and to a level of radiation that will serve a specific purpose, rather than radiation exposure to normal levels of background radiation. The term irradiation usually excludes the exposure to non-ionizing radiation, such as infrared, visible light, microwaves from cellular phones or electromagnetic waves emitted by radio and TV receivers and power supplies.

Usage examples of "irradiation".

Absolute Unity being taken as a centre, then the existing Universe of Stars is the result of irradiation from that centre.

Generalizing yet again, we may say that the diffusion--the scattering--the irradiation, in a word--is directly proportional with the squares of the distances.

I suppose this equability of distribution effected through irradiation from a centre.

The very first glance at the idea, irradiation, forces us to the entertainment of the hitherto unseparated and seemingly inseparable idea of agglomeration about a centre, with dispersion as we recede from it--the idea, in a word, of inequability of distribution in respect to the matter irradiated.

This cloud is the seeming impossibility of reconciling my truth, irradiation, with my truth, equability of diffusion.

Now, in any such irradiation as this--continuous and of unvarying force--the regions nearer the centre must inevitably be always more crowded with the radiated matter than the regions more remote.

Matter could have been diffused so as to fulfil at once the conditions of irradiation and of generally equable distribution.

In this view, when the irradiation shall have returned into its source--when the reaction shall be completed--the gravitating principle will no longer exist.

Titanic atom existing in space with precisely the same inclination for Unity which characterized, in the beginning, the actual atoms after their irradiation throughout the Universal sphere.

On the Universal agglomeration and dissolution, we can readily conceive that a new and perhaps totally different series of conditions may ensue--another creation and irradiation, returning into itself--another action and reaction of the Divine Will.

A single, unmanifold emanation we may very well allow--how even that can come from a pure unity may be a problem, but we may always explain it on the analogy of the irradiation from a luminary--but a multitudinous production raises question.

At the centre, clouds reflected the diseased irradiation of the crater, tarnishing the land with the flickers of dying atoms.

Exposed to increased irradiation, the reproductive cells of many plankton species, up to six times more susceptible to destruction by ultraviolet light, were gradually being destroyed.

They could not be mistaken in the nature of the irradiation thrown from the glowing nucleus, whose clear rays were shattered by all the angles, all the projections of the cavern.

For a space I could not understand it, and then I knew that it must be the red weed from which this faint irradiation proceeded.