The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fluid \Flu"id\, n. A fluid substance; a body whose particles move easily among themselves. Note: Fluid is a generic term, including liquids and gases as species. Water, air, and steam are fluids. By analogy, the term was sometimes applied to electricity and magnetism, as in phrases electric fluid, magnetic fluid, though not strictly appropriate; such usage has disappeared. Fluid dram, or Fluid drachm, a measure of capacity equal to one eighth of a fluid ounce. Fluid ounce.
In the United States, a measure of capacity, in apothecaries' or wine measure, equal to one sixteenth of a pint or 29.57 cubic centimeters. This, for water, is about 1.04158 ounces avoirdupois, or 455.6 grains.
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In England, a measure of capacity equal to the twentieth part of an imperial pint. For water, this is the weight of the avoirdupois ounce, or 437.5 grains.
Fluids of the body. (Physiol.) The circulating blood and lymph, the chyle, the gastric, pancreatic, and intestinal juices, the saliva, bile, urine, aqueous humor, and muscle serum are the more important fluids of the body. The tissues themselves contain a large amount of combined water, so much, that an entire human body dried in vacuo with a very moderate degree of heat gives about 66 per cent of water.
Burning fluid, Elastic fluid, Electric fluid, Magnetic fluid, etc. See under Burning, Elastic, etc.
Electric \E*lec"tric\ ([-e]*l[e^]k"tr[i^]k), Electrical \E*lec"tric*al\ ([-e]*l[e^]k"tr[i^]*kal), a. [L. electrum amber, a mixed metal, Gr. 'h`lektron; akin to 'hle`ktwr the beaming sun, cf. Skr. arc to beam, shine: cf. F. ['e]lectrique. The name came from the production of electricity by the friction of amber.]
Pertaining to electricity; consisting of, containing, derived from, or produced by, electricity; as, electric power or virtue; an electric jar; electric effects; an electric spark; an electric charge; an electric current; an electrical engineer.
Capable of occasioning the phenomena of electricity; as, an electric or electrical machine or substance; an electric generator.
Electrifying; thrilling; magnetic. ``Electric Pindar.''
--Mrs. Browning.-
powered by electricity; as, electrical appliances; an electric toothbrush; an electric automobile.
Electric atmosphere, or Electric aura. See under Aura.
Electrical battery. See Battery.
Electrical brush. See under Brush.
Electric cable. See Telegraph cable, under Telegraph.
Electric candle. See under Candle.
Electric cat (Zo["o]l.), one of three or more large species of African catfish of the genus Malapterurus (esp. M. electricus of the Nile). They have a large electrical organ and are able to give powerful shocks; -- called also sheathfish.
Electric clock. See under Clock, and see Electro-chronograph.
Electric current, a current or stream of electricity traversing a closed circuit formed of conducting substances, or passing by means of conductors from one body to another which is in a different electrical state.
Electric eel, or Electrical eel (Zo["o]l.), a South American eel-like fresh-water fish of the genus Gymnotus ( G. electricus), from two to five feet in length, capable of giving a violent electric shock. See Gymnotus.
Electrical fish (Zo["o]l.), any fish which has an electrical organ by means of which it can give an electrical shock. The best known kinds are the torpedo, the gymnotus, or electrical eel, and the electric cat. See Torpedo, and Gymnotus.
Electric fluid, the supposed matter of electricity; lightning. [archaic]
Electrical image (Elec.), a collection of electrical points regarded as forming, by an analogy with optical phenomena, an image of certain other electrical points, and used in the solution of electrical problems.
--Sir W. Thomson.Electric machine, or Electrical machine, an apparatus for generating, collecting, or exciting, electricity, as by friction.
Electric motor. See Electro-motor, 2.
Electric osmose. (Physics) See under Osmose.
Electric pen, a hand pen for making perforated stencils for multiplying writings. It has a puncturing needle driven at great speed by a very small magneto-electric engine on the penhandle.
Electric railway, a railway in which the machinery for moving the cars is driven by an electric current.
Electric ray (Zo["o]l.), the torpedo.
Electric telegraph. See Telegraph.
Usage examples of "electric fluid".
But the roof, the side walls, the end cliff, all the prisms, all the peaks, were flooded with the electric fluid, so that the brilliancy belonged to them, and as if the light issued from them.
Her wriggling about and the delicious contractions of her culo brought down from me a copious discharge of the electric fluid which I injected into her.
Even with a single brain, the grafting would have been impossible, had I not been able to rely upon the almost miraculous effects of the electric fluid.
Flash succeeded flash, the electric fluid playing on the moisture-laden envelope.