cell
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
Pronunciation
- IPA: /sɛl/
From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English cell (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella, later reinforced by Old French cel, sele, Old French cele.
Nouncell (plural cells)
- A single-room dwelling for a hermit. [from 10th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
- So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].
- 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV:
- For three days he and his attendants had wandered in the forest without seeing a human form: but on the evening of the third they came to a cell, in which they found a venerable hermit in the agonies of death.
- (now historical) A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment. [from 11th c.]
- A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person. [from 14th c.]
- Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.
- A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates. [from 18th c.]
- Synonyms: prison cell
- The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
- Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb. [from 14th c.]
- (biology, now, chiefly, botany) Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions. [from 14th c.]
- 1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282:
- Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom […].
- (entomology) The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
- (obsolete) Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories. [14th]
- 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC ↗:
- How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept.
- 1794, Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution:
- [W]e shall feel still more contempt for the order of men, who cultivated their faculties, only to enable them to consolidate their power, by leading the ignorant astray; making the learning they concentrated in their cells, a more polished instrument of oppression.
- 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- From cell to cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man's appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre.
- A section or compartment of a larger structure. [from 16th c.]
- (obsolete, chiefly literary) Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den. [16th]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
- Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed […].
- 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the stanza number):
- Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell […].
- A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery. [from 19th c.]
- This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells.
- (biology) The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a quantity of protoplasm surrounded by a cell membrane, which is able to synthesize proteins and replicate itself. [from 19th c.]
- 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3:
- In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.
- (meteorology) A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front. [from 20th c.]
- There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.
- (cellular automata) The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior. [from 20th c.]
- The upper right cell always starts with the color green.
- (card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
- A small group of people forming part of a larger organization, often an outlawed one. [from 20th c.]
- Those three fellows are the local cell of that organization.
- (communication) A short, fixed-length packet, as in asynchronous transfer mode. [from 20th c.]
- Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells.
- (communication) A region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network.
- I get good reception in my home because it is near a cell tower.
- (geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
- (statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
- (architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
- (architecture) A cella.
- (entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins.
- See also Thesaurus:cell
- French: pile
- German: Zelle, Batteriezelle
- Portuguese: célula
- Russian: батаре́йка
- French: cellule
- German: Zelle, Haftraum
- Italian: cella
- Portuguese: cela
- Russian: ка́мера
- Spanish: celda, bartolina (Honduras), estancia, calabozo
- French: cellule
- German: Zelle, Mönchszelle
- Italian: cella
- Portuguese: cela
- Russian: ке́лья
- Spanish: célula
cell (cells, present participle celling; simple past and past participle celled)
- (transitive) To place or enclose in a cell.
cell (plural cells)
- (US, NZ, AU, Philippines, informal) A cellular phone.
- French: portable, mobile
- German: Handy
- Italian: cellulare
- Portuguese: (telefone) celular
- Russian: моби́ла
- Spanish: teléfono móvil, móvil, teléfono celular, celular
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
