The Collaborative International Dictionary
Noble \No"ble\, a. [Compar. Nobler; superl. Noblest.] [F. noble, fr. L. nobilis that can be or is known, well known, famous, highborn, noble, fr. noscere to know. See know.]
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Possessing eminence, elevation, dignity, etc.; above whatever is low, mean, degrading, or dishonorable; magnanimous; as, a noble nature or action; a noble heart.
Statues, with winding ivy crowned, belong To nobler poets for a nobler song.
--Dryden. Grand; stately; magnificent; splendid; as, a noble edifice.
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Of exalted rank; of or pertaining to the nobility; distinguished from the masses by birth, station, or title; highborn; as, noble blood; a noble personage.
Note: Noble is used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, noble-born, noble-hearted, noble-minded.
Noble gas (Chem.), a gaseous element belonging to group VIII of the periodic table of elements, not combining with other elements under normal reaction conditions; specifically, helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, or radon; also called inert gas.
Noble metals (Chem.), silver, gold, and platinum; -- so called from their resistance to oxidation by air and to dissolution by acids. Copper, mercury, aluminium, palladium, rhodium, iridium, and osmium are sometimes included.
Syn: Honorable; worthy; dignified; elevated; exalted; superior; sublime; great; eminent; illustrious; renowned; stately; splendid; magnificent; grand; magnanimous; generous; liberal; free.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context chemistry English) A gas which does not undergo chemical reactions. 2 (context chemistry specifically English) A noble gas.
WordNet
Wikipedia
An inert gas is a gas which does not undergo chemical reactions under a set of given conditions. The noble gases often do not react with many substances. Inert gases are used generally to avoid unwanted chemical reactions degrading a sample. These undesirable chemical reactions are often oxidation and hydrolysis reactions with the oxygen and moisture in air. The term inert gas is context-dependent because several of the noble gases can be made to react under certain conditions.
Purified argon and nitrogen gases are most commonly used as inert gases due to their high natural abundance (78% N, 1% Ar in air) and low relative cost.
Unlike noble gases, an inert gas is not necessarily elemental and is often a compound gas. Like the noble gases the tendency for non-reactivity is due to the valence, the outermost electron shell, being complete in all the inert gases. This is a tendency, not a rule, as noble gases and other "inert" gases can react to form compounds.
Usage examples of "inert gas".
His chest felt tight and hot, as if the air pumping through it was nothing, vacuum, inert gas.
Briefly Arcot and Wade discussed the unusual atmosphere, finally deciding that the inert gas was argon.
Without an atmosphere comprised of some relatively inert gas, there would be no way to dilute the unwelcome compounds or efficiently flush them out.
Helium, the second lightest element, is the final member of the inert gas group, and the one with the lowest atomic number.
Theoretically he could have sealed off the bathroom and pumped the oxygen out and replaced it with some inert gas.
Conway reported, switching on the pump that would extract and recompress the inert gas in the envelope.
We cannot work without light, but we should be able to reduce the air that has leaked from the edges of our breathing masks by withdrawing it with the operative debris and replacing it with an inert gas pumped through the existing suction line.
Indeed, so great was the temperature at which they operated, the globes were filled with inert gas in order to prevent even the highly refractive tungsten from burning in the air!
Somebody with the technology to handle inert gas packaging and seal radiation-proof containers, somebody with the knowledge to program the boarders so that they would rise and strike at a calculated time during the voyage.
Or they might have been preserved intact by inert gas, sterile, and lifted to the surface on the same platform-shift that brought us down here.
Before we opened that door it might have been pure nitrogen or some other inert gas in here.