Crossword clues for corpuscle
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Electron \E*lec"tron\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. 'h`lektron. See Electric.]
Amber; also, the alloy of gold and silver, called electrum. [archaic]
(Physics & Chem.) one of the fundamental subatomic particles, having a negative charge and about one thousandth the mass of a hydrogen atom. The electron carries (or is) a natural unit of negative electricity, equal to
4 x 10^ -10 electrostatic units, and is classed by physicists as a lepton. Its mass is practically constant at the lesser speeds, but increases due to relativistic effects as the velocity approaches that of light. Electrons are all of one kind, so far as is known. Thus far, no structure has been detected within an electron, and it is probably one of the ultimate composite constituents of all matter. An atom or group of atoms from which an electron has been detached has a positive charge and is called a cation. Electrons are projected from the cathode of vacuum tubes (including television picture tubes) as cathode rays and from radioactive substances as the beta rays. Previously also referred to as corpuscle, an obsolete term. The motion of electrons through metallic conductors is observed as an electric current. A particle identical to the electron in mass and most other respects, but having a positive instead of a negative charge, is called a positron, or antielectron
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1650s, "any small particle," from Latin corpusculum "a puny body; an atom, particle," diminutive of corpus "body" (see corporeal). First applied to blood cells 1845. Related: Corpuscular.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A minute#Adjective particle; an atom; a molecule. 2 A protoplasmic animal cell; especially, such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are embedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles.
WordNet
n. (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything [syn: atom, molecule, particle, mote, speck]
either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes) and sometimes including platelets [syn: blood cell, blood corpuscle]
Wikipedia
Corpuscle may refer to:
- a small free floating biological cell, especially a blood cell
- a nerve ending such as Meissner's corpuscle or a Pacinian corpuscle
- any member of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge or Corpus Christi College, Oxford
- a subatomic particle made obsolete by the modern electron and used in J.J. Thomson's plum pudding model of the atom
- a single, infinitesimally small particle of light. Isaac Newton proposed this term to represent a concept of light—as opposed to a photon, which exhibits wave and particle characteristics.
Usage examples of "corpuscle".
Deficiency of oxygen is the cause of apnoea, and sometimes the red corpuscles themselves are so few, worn out, or destroyed, that they cannot carry sufficient oxygen, and the consequence is that the patient becomes short of breath, and when a fatal degeneration of the corpuscles ensues, he dies of asphyxia.
Furthermore, the idea that different kinds of corpuscles, or atoms, could combine with one another was the first step toward understanding the nature of chemical reactions.
Recall that he believed that the atoms, or corpuscles, of which all substances were composed were made of the same kind of primal matter.
The formation of pus in different parts of the genitourinary system is accompanied by the appearance of pus corpuscles in the urine.
In the lungs, the corpuscles give up carbonic acid, and absorb a fresh supply of oxygen, while in the general circulation the oxygen disappears in the process of tissue transformation, and is replaced, in the venous blood, by carbonic acid.
By this means the blood-making organs rapidly improve in their activity and functions, the blood becomes rich in corpuscles and fibrin, thus strengthening the walls of the blood-vessels and tending to prevent a hemorrhage following undue excitement or injury.
The red blood corpuscles were drained of oxygen and now contained hemoglobin itself, not oxyhemoglobin, that bright red combination of hemoglobin and oxygen.
The pressure-receptors end in a Pacinian corpuscle, described in 1830 by the Italian anatomist Filippo Pacini.
Longuet regards the condition of the blood in leukemia as the cause of such priapism, and considers that the circulation of the blood is retarded in the smaller vessels, while, owing to the great increase in the number of white corpuscles, thrombi are formed.
Therefore, down on cellular level, your white blood corpuscles and antigens are waging relentless, violent war on invaders.
It is also indicated where there is a lack of red blood corpuscles, as in anaemia.
When pus formation has occurred it is an indication that the white blood corpuscles have successfully overcome the invading microorganisms.
She visualized the corpuscles rushing red and busy through her arm to her finger, back up to her shoulder, through the pulmonary vessels, the heart, and out again in a gushing rush.
I thought about all the fat red corpuscles forcing their way through the shrunken capillaries like water gushing along dry irrigation ditches after a drought.
In fact, the ganglionic corpuscles of each eye may be considered as constituting a little brain, connected with the masses behind by the commissure, commonly called the optic nerve.