The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cathode \Cath"ode\, n. [Gr. ? descent; ? down + ? way.]
(Physics)
The part of a voltaic battery by which the electric current
leaves substances through which it passes, or the surface at
which the electric current passes out of the electrolyte; the
negative pole; -- opposed to anode.
--Faraday.
Cathode ray (Phys.), a kind of ray generated at the cathode in a vacuum tube, by the electrical discharge.
Wiktionary
n. (context electricity English) A ray consisting of a stream of electrons in a vacuum tube, that are emitted by the cathode and accelerated towards the anode by an electric field.
WordNet
n. a beam of electrons emitted by the cathode of an electrical discharge tube
Wikipedia
Cathode rays (also called an electron beam or e-beam) are streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes. If an evacuated glass tube is equipped with two electrodes and a voltage is applied, the glass opposite of the negative electrode is observed to glow, due to electrons emitted from and travelling perpendicular to the cathode (the electrode connected to the negative terminal of the voltage supply). They were first observed in 1869 by German physicist Johann Hittorf, and were named in 1876 by Eugen Goldstein Kathodenstrahlen, or cathode rays.
Electrons were first discovered as the constituents of cathode rays. In 1897 British physicist J. J. Thomson showed the rays were composed of a previously unknown negatively charged particle, which was later named the electron. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) use a focused beam of electrons deflected by electric or magnetic fields to create the image in a classic television set.
Usage examples of "cathode ray".
The Phnaargs were the first race ever to become irrevocably hooked on television, the first to fall victim to the dangerous and terminally addictive radiations of the cathode ray tube.
That, I knew, was the cathode ray, not the X-ray, for the X-ray itself, which streams outside the tube, is invisible to the human eye.
A cathode ray display directly in front of Baedecker lit up and began running through a litany of meaningless data.
A cathode ray tube can hold 300 volts of passive electrical storage, so use a hefty screwdriver across the main power supply capacitor, first.
There's a vacuum inside the cathode ray tube so the moment you drill through, the tube will suck air, sort of inhale a little whistle of it.