celln.¹

Brit.

/sɛl/, U.S.

/sɛl/

Forms: Old English cellan (inflected form), late Old English cellas (plural), Middle English–1500s sel, Middle English–1500s selle, Middle English–1600s cel, Middle English–1600s celle, Middle English–1600s sell, Middle English– cell; Scottish pre-1700 cel, pre-1700 celle, pre-1700 sel, pre-1700 sell, pre-1700 1700s– cell.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Partly a borrowing from French. Etymons: Latin cella; French celle.

Etymology: Originally < classical Latin cella (see below); subsequently reinforced by Anglo-Norman cel, sele, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French cele, celle (French (now rare) celle ) dwelling consisting of a single chamber inhabited by a hermit or anchorite (second half of the 11th cent.), (especially small) monastery (first half of the 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman), storeroom (end of the 12th cent.), small room for a monk or nun in a monastery or convent (late 14th cent. or earlier), chamber in a temple (mid 15th cent.) < classical Latin cella store or larder, chamber in a temple, small room, poor man's apartment, slave's room, porter's lodge, coop, pen, compartment, cell of a honeycomb, in post-classical Latin also a monk's or hermit's cell (4th or 5th cent.; from 11th cent. in British sources), monastery (5th cent.), small, dependent monastery (7th cent.; frequently from 1182 in British sources), compartment of the brain (from 12th cent. in British sources) < the same Indo-European base as classical Latin celāre to hide (see cele v.). Compare Old Occitan cela (c1300; Occitan cèla), Catalan cel·la (late 13th cent.), Spanish celda (c1284 as †çelda; variant, with dissimilation of consonants, of †çella (c1270)), Portuguese cela (13th cent.), Italian cella (1300).The Latin word was also borrowed into other Germanic languages at an early date; compare Middle Dutch celle (Dutch cel ), Middle Low German celle , selle , zelle , Old High German cella , zella (Middle High German celle , zelle , German Zelle , †Celle ), and also (originally via Middle Low German; in later use in Swedish reborrowed < German or English) Old Danish selle (Danish celle ), Old Swedish sälle , cälle , celle (Swedish cell ), all earliest in sense ‘chamber of a hermit or anchorite’. French celle is rare after the Middle French period, and was superseded in all of its senses by cellule cellule n. The latter shows a semantic range similar to cell n.¹, although most of its senses are first attested later than the corresponding ones in English. In sense 11 after French cellule (1694 in this sense, in the passage translated in quot. 1712). In sense 14b after French cellule, scientific Latin cellula ( L. Jurine Nouvelle méthode de classer les Hyménoptères et les Diptères (1807) I. 2-3), originally via German Zelle. In sense 15 after German Zelle (in this sense, M. J. Schleiden 1838, in the source cited in the note at definition); compare French cellule (1824 in this sense). In sense 17 after French cellule (H. Bénard 1900, in Rev. gén. des sci. 11 1266/1, and 1901, in Ann. chimie et physique 23 65). In sense 19 apparently a transferred use of sense 15; compare e.g. Russian jačejka basic organizational unit of the Communist Party, lit. ‘cell’ (1919 or earlier in this sense; now historical), German Zelle (c1920 in this sense), French cellule (1920 in this sense). It is unclear whether in Old English the word is weak feminine (celle) or weak masculine (cella); in late Old English a strong masculine is apparently also attested (compare cellas (plural)).

I. A small apartment, room, or dwelling.

a. A dwelling consisting of a single chamber inhabited by a hermit or anchorite.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > retirement or seclusion > secluded place or place of seclusion > [noun] > single chamber dwelling

cellOE

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > other types of dwelling > [noun] > hermitage

cellOE

hermitagec1290

eremitagec1400

narrow cell1636

hermitary1754

OE tr. Bili St. Machutus 23 Þa se halga Machu wæs geondfarende þa mynstra, for lufan þara leorningcnihta, þa wæs he farende neah cellan [L. cellulam] anes Godes þeowes,..se wæs þeowiende Gode dæges & nihtes, æfter his mihtum.

c1300 St. Dunstan (Harl.) l. 60 in F. J. Furnivall Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 36 (MED) For he nolde bi his wille no tyme idel beo, A priuei smyþþe bi his celle he gan him biseo.

c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. Prol. l. 28 (MED) Ancres and Hermytes þat holdeþ hem in heore Celles.

c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xviii. l. 7 Þer were suche eremites, Solitarie by hem-self and in here selles lyueden Wiþ-oute borwynge oþer beggynge bote of god one.

a1500 (?c1425) Speculum Sacerdotale (1936) 197 Seynt Marcelle, the monke, dwellynge in a denne..seey..a sterre schynyng in the dore of his celle.

1597 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet ii. iii. 171 Bid her..come to shrift to Frier Laurence cell .

1690 J. Dryden Don Sebastian v. 130 Holy Hermites. Who there, secure in separated Cells, Sacred ev'n to the Moors, enjoy Devotion.

1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 69 Some got Tents and set them up in the Fields, carrying Beds,..and Provisions to eat, and so liv'd in them as Hermits in a Cell.

1762 R. Lloyd Poems 112 Thou, who delightest still to dwell By some hoar and moss-grown cell.

1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II i. iv. 5 His native land..seem'd to him more lone than Eremite's sad cell.

1875 H. E. Manning Internal Mission of Holy Ghost vii. 186 Whose homes are more bare and empty than the cell of an anchorite.

1948 G. P. Fedotov Treasury Russ. Spirituality 243 At the age of sixty-six, he [sc. St Seraphim] emerged from his secluded cell and turned to the suffering world.

2000 M. Howe Turkey Today vi. 72 Hidden in the rocky maze are innumerable chapels and monks' cells and more than 400 churches.

b. figurative (in later quots. perhaps merging with sense 4). Chiefly poetic.

ΚΠ

1530 Myroure Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 275 Aue christi cella, Hayle celle of cryste.

1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. G2 In thy shadie Cell where none may spie him, Sits sin.

1645 E. Waller Of Divine Love vi, in Poems (1893) 258 The soul contending to that light to flee From her dark cell.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost v. 109 [Reason] retires Into her private Cell when Nature rests.

1759 T. Gray Epit. Tomb-stone in Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 485 A heart, within whose sacred cell The peaceful virtues lov'd to dwell.

1816 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto III v. 5 Shapes which dwell Still unimpair'd, though old, in the soul's haunted cell.

1907 E. G. Gardner St Catherine of Siena xvi. 359 Without leaving the cell of self-knowledge, she goes forth in God's name, prepared to endure sufferings.

1968 W. R. Parker Milton I. iv. xi. 460 The Italian sonnet..is a page in a poet's diary, a comfortable cell for solitary thoughts.

†c. In extended use (chiefly poetic and literary). A small and humble dwelling, a cottage. Also: a lonely nook; the den of a wild beast. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > small house > small ( and humble) house

cotc893

cotlif1001

cotea1034

cratchc1325

shiel1338

cottagec1405

cot-housec1550

cell1577

shiel-house1804

the world > animals > by habitat > habitat > [noun] > dwelling place or shelter > of a wild animal

cabin1377

closet1576

harbour1576

fort1653

cell1735

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 11 What meaneth this Cell..at the entrance? This is syr, my Bayliffes lodging, I lay him by the Gate, that he may see who goeth in and out.

1625 F. Quarles Sions Sonets xi. sig. C3^v See how kings' courts surmount poore shepheards' cels.

1633 P. Fletcher Purple Island vi. xi. 67 Deep in the earth she [sc. the badger] frames her prettie cell, And into halls and closulets divides.

1647 R. Herrick Noble Numbers 13 Lord, Thou hast given me a cell Wherein to dwell.

1735 W. Somervile Chace iii. 222 All the Race Carnivorous..retire Into their darksome Cells.

1756 E. Perronet Mitre i. xix. 5 Chaplains that bless the royal board,..The lordly Sees or humble Cells Of London and of York.

1808 E. Sleath Bristol Heiress I. 177 The zibelin from her haunts decoy'd; Or chas'd the ermine from his cell.

1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake ii. 93 Like hunted stag, in mountain cell.

1818 Classical Jrnl. 18 100 Deep cavern'd vaults, where tuneless night-birds dwell, Or lurks the bandit—in the Lion's cell.

d. Applied to the grave (often with some notion of sense 4). Now chiefly in narrow cell: see narrow cell n. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > burial > grave or burial-place > [noun]

buriels854

througheOE

burianOE

graveOE

lairc1000

lair-stowc1000

lich-restc1000

pitOE

grass-bedOE

buriness1175

earth housec1200

sepulchrec1200

tombc1300

lakec1320

buriala1325

monumenta1325

burying-place1382

resting placea1387

sepulturea1387

beda1400

earth-beda1400

longhousea1400

laystow1452

lying1480

delfa1500

worms' kitchen?a1500

bier1513

laystall1527

funeral?a1534

lay-bed1541

restall1557

cellarc1560

burying-grave1599

pit-hole1602

urn1607

cell1609

hearse1610

polyandrum1627

requietory1631

burial-place1633

mortuary1654

narrow cell1686

ground-sweat1699

sacred place1728

narrow house1792

plot1852

narrow bed1854

1609 A. Gardyne Garden Grave & Godlie Flowres sig. D4 ^v O graue, (A seuen foote Cell,) made of the marble mold, His knighted Corps..thou shall haue.

1686 E. Arwaker tr. H. Hugo Pia Desideria i. iii. 19 Now my last breath is ready to expire, And I must next to Death's dark Cell retire.

1774 A. Dow Sethona iii. 46 The dark caves of death; those dreary cells, Where Egypt's monarchs lie.

1877 W. C. Bryant Among Trees 49 Their last rest, Their little cells within the burial-place.

2. A monastery or nunnery, generally of small size, dependent on some larger house. Now historical.In quot. lOE apparently denoting monasteries in general.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > church government > monasticism > [noun] > religious foundation

celllOE

convent?c1225

monasterya1425

cœnobya1475

monks1556

cœnobium1817

reclusory1821

reclusery1835

society > faith > church government > monasticism > [noun] > religious foundation > small dependent

celllOE

conventicle1550

lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1129 Ealle þa priores, muneces & canonias þa wæron on ealle þa cellas on Englaland.

c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 4808 (MED) In þe cite of bangor a gret hous þer was, Þat were vnder seue cellen; & þer of non nas Þat þre hondred monekes nere Inne oþer mo.

?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) ii. l. 6446 A monke of a celle bare him wele þat tide.

a1450 Rule St. Benet (Vesp.) l. 306 In non abbay wil þai dwell, Bot wendes about fro cel to cel.

1534 Act 26 Hen. VIII c. 3 §8 There be diuers celles apperteining to monasteries and priories.

1584 J. Hooker Catal. Bishops Excester sig. D.j Likewise at this time was builded the Priorie of S. Nicholas in Excester, by the Abbat of Battell, vnto which Abbie, this Priorie was a cell.

1651 N. Bacon Contin. Hist. Disc. Govt. 147 The Norman and French Cells were in his Predecessors time seized under this colour.

1726 N. Salmon Rom. Stations in Brit. 27 'Tis just by a Farm of the Earl of Suffolk's called St. Aylot's, which has been a Cell or Priory.

1772 T. Pennant Tours Scotl. (1774) 61 The house was once a cell to the Abby.

1870 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (ed. 2) II. App. 659 There was a priory of Lapley, which was a cell to Saint Remigius.

1908 New Schaff-Herzog Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 466 Sometimes the ‘cell’ was an important building, as Tynemouth Priory near Newcastle, England, which was a ‘cell’ of the Benedictine abbey of St. Alban's.

1997 D. H. Farmer Oxf. Dict. Saints (ed. 4) 122 Edward the Confessor gave Steyning church to Fécamp, which monastery established a cell of monks on the site of his old wooden church.

†3. A storeroom. Also figurative. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > possession > supply > storage > [noun] > place where anything is or may be stored > store-closet or -cupboard

cellc1230

warestall1508

warda1529

store-closet1825

store-cupboard1841

c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 79 He schawde þe celles of his aromaz.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Isa. xxxix. 2 Ezechie..shewede to them the selle [L. cellam] of spices, and of siluer, and of gold, and of swote thingus.

1570 B. Googe tr. T. Kirchmeyer Spirituall Husbandry ii, in tr. Popish Kingdome f. 77^v Then vnto this let him applie his witte with all his might, To finde the chiefest seede to sowe... Canst thou not truly tell, What Garner for to seeke for this, or in what secrete Cell?

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. G4 [They]..carieng it into their celles, and garners at home, keepe it.

4. Any one of a number of chambers in a building, typically intended for or inhabited by a single person.

a. A small room for a monk, nun, etc., in a monastery, convent, or the like.Formerly also: †a room in an almshouse (obsolete).

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > artefacts > monastic property (general) > monastery or convent > parts of monastery > [noun] > cell

houseOE

cellc1300

cluse1481

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > room > types of room generally > [noun] > small room

parrockOE

cellc1300

cabin1362

parclosea1470

camerelle?c1475

crib1600

narrow cell1636

pigeonhole1703

closet1728

box1773

cuddy1793

cubby-hole1842

roomlet1855

cubby1868

cubby-house1880

cwtch1890

cellule1894

c1300 St. Scholastica (Laud) l. 28 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 198 (MED) Wel þov wost þat i ne mai beo bi niȝte fram mine celle.

1340 Ayenbite (1866) App. 267 Þer byeþ Monekes þet uor claustres and uor strayte cellen.

1462 Hull Trinity House Rec. in N.E.D (at cited word) Paide for xliii sawne board boght for th' makyng of the Celles of th' said Trenyte House..iiijs. ijd.

c1480 (a1400) St. Pelagia 329 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 213 Þe thryd day he come agane..to þe sel, quhare frere pelagius can duel.

a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. Clxxix^v Some aduysed her to brenne incence in her cell.

1546 J. Bale Actes Eng. Votaryes: 1st Pt. f. 31 The sell of an holye Nonne.

1644 Hull Corporation Bks. 13 Apr. All such goodes and household stuffe as they should..use in their seuerall cells or rooms.

1663 A. Cowley Ess. in Verse & Prose (1669) 70 The Chartreux wants the warning of a Bell To call him to the duties of his Cell.

a1750 L. Pilkington Mem. (1754) III. 187 I believe the Inn had formerly been a Convent, by the numerous little Cells and Cloysters.

1796 M. G. Lewis Monk I. ii. 63 The monks having attended their abbot to the door of his cell, he dismissed them with an air of conscious superiority.

1859 J. M. Jephson & L. Reeve Narr. Walking Tour Brittany xiii. 220 In passing along..I saw the cells of the sisterhood.

1876 J. Fergusson Hist. Indian Archit. iv. ii. 335 All round the court there is a peristylar cloister with cells.

1957 F. L. Cross Oxf. Dict. Christian Church 423/2 The Carthusians..say a Dry Mass of Our Lady in their cells after Prime.

1997 W. Dalrymple From Holy Mountain (1998) v. 303 The cells of the Celtic monks..preserved in the more remote corners of Ireland.

b. A room for one or more inmates in a prison. Formerly also: a similar room in an asylum (cf. padded cell n.). Cf. prison cell n. at prison n. Compounds 1a.This sense, probably extended from 4a, emerged in the early 18th cent. with the promotion of solitary confinement for reformative penal purposes; a bank of cells was built in Newgate in the 1720s.condemned, observation, police cell, etc.: see the first element.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > cell

houseOE

cabinc1522

hole1535

lodging1612

hold1717

cell1728

lock-up room1775

glory-hole1825

box1834

drum1846

sweat-box1870

booby-hutch1889

Peter1890

booby1899

boob1908

flowery dell1925

slot1947

1701 Hanging not Punishment enough for Murtherers, High-way Men, & House-breakers 20 In common Persons so much Roguery is learn'd among Numbers, that I think 'twere well, if, as In the Inquisition..every one, at least of the most notorious ones, had a Box or Cell to himself.]

1728 Ordinary of Newgate, his Acct. 12 Feb. 4 When I visited him in the Cell, he was very attentive to Prayers, and desir'd good Instructions.

1777 J. Howard State of Prisons (1792) 213 The rooms and cells [of Old Newgate] were so close, as to be almost constant seats of disease.

1812 Times 2 Jan. 4/3 One of the prisoners, who was confined in the adjoining cell, heard the rattling of his irons.

1828 T. Carlyle Burns in Edinb. Rev. Dec. 305 Tasso pines in the cell of a madhouse.

1873 Dark Side N.Y. Life 731 The cells on the second floor contain those charged with murder.

1946 N. Coward Diary 16 Oct. (2000) 66 Goering cheated at the last minute and managed to munch up a phial of cyanide of potassium in his cell.

1984 Jrnl. Substance Abuse Treatm. 1 iv. 237/1 They'd arrest them, imprison them, and let them kick cold turkey in a cell.

2003 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 22 Apr. 12/2 At the Pelican Bay State Prison..inmates are kept inside their tiny cells 22½ hours a day.

c. colloquial. In plural (without article). Imprisonment, esp. solitary confinement as a punishment for offences against military law. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > [noun] > in solitary confinement

reclusion1800

separate confinement1849

cell1861

pindown1985

1861 Times 18 Sept. 12 No private's hair is as short as his unless he has been tried by Court-martial, or has got cells.

1891 R. Kipling Life's Handicap 23 You 'ave been absent without leave an' you'll go into cells for that.

1918 W. J. Locke Rough Road xvii At the worst they might give him cells when he recovered.

1929 J. Galsworthy Exiled iii. i In the Court yesterday, you give me a night cells for sleepin' out.

†5. A small private room or apartment. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > room > types of room generally > [noun] > private or inner room

bowerc1000

chamber?c1225

privy chambera1382

closeta1387

closera1400

conclavea1400

wardrobea1400

cell?1440

garderobe?c1450

retreatc1500

parlour1561

cabinet1565

cabin1594

in-room?1615

recamera1622

sanctum sanctorum1707

adytum1800

snuggery1812

sulking-room1816

sanctum1819

anderoon1840

inner sanctum1843

thalamus1850

growlery1853

tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. l. 1085 (MED) That al the day hit [sc. the bathhouse] may be warm and light The cellis suspensuris thus thou dight.

a1475 J. Russell Bk. Nurture (Harl. 4011) in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 128 Serue hit [sc. ypocras] forth with wafurs boþe in chambur & Celle.

c1500 Pilgrims Sea-voyage l. 64 in F. J. Furnivall Stations of Rome (1867) i. 40 (MED) He calleth a carpentere..To make the cabans here and there, With many a febylle celle.

c1600 (c1350) Alisaunder (Greaves) (1929) l. 525 Nectanabus..passed in his paleis too a privie sell.

1659 J. Evelyn Let. 3 Sept. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) I. 366 Opposite to the House, towards the wood, should be erected a pretty chapel; and..six Apartments or Cells, for the members of the Societie.

6. Architecture. = cella n. (see also sense 14a).

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > artefacts > division of building (general) > nave > [noun]

bodyc1390

boukc1420

middle pace1499

bulk1518

holy place1526

ship1613

bodystead1623

cella1652

nave1673

cella1676

nef1687

auditorium1728

a1652 I. Jones Most Notable Antiq. called Stone-Heng (1655) 101 The Pantheon hath its Cell enclosed with a continued solid Wall, and the Portico only in Front.

1742 G. Leoni tr. Archit. of Palladio (ed. 3) II. v. 10 Round Temples were anciently sometimes made open, that is, without a Cell [It. senze cella].

1768 S. Riou Grecian Orders Archit. iv. 30 The walls of the cell of the temple were extended at the sides and at the back front, to cut into the diameteres of the columns.

1813 J. C. Hobhouse Journey xxiii. 341 Within the cell of the Temple all is desolation and ruin; the shafts of columns..are scattered about on every side.

1893 Eng. Hist. Rev. 8 317 A single hall or cell formed by four rectangular walls..which, as is well known, is the most ancient form of the Greek temple.

1963 P. Rawson in S. Lloyd et al. World Archit. 134 The earlier form of Hindu temple consisted of a single cell with a small, columned portico attached, an exact parallel to the cella of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean.

1999 J. S. Curl Dict. Archit. 491/2 The peridrome is the space between the columns and the solid wall of the cell behind them, such as in a Greek temple.

II. In extended use. A compartment; an enclosed space, cavity, or sac.

†a. More fully cell of the brain. Any of the (imaginary) cavities or compartments in the brain thought to be the seats of particular mental faculties, or to serve as pigeonholes for the storage of knowledge. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > nervous system > cerebrospinal axis > brain > parts of brain > [noun] > as (supposed) seat of faculty

cella1393

cellulea1400

emporium1683

organ1806

brain centre1844

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 1463 Of a man The wit..Is in the celles of the brayn.

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. l. 123 So febled was his celle retentif.

c1450 in Mod. Philol. (1924) 21 390 The cellys of memor were yn euery thing fful clere, with out fantesye and ymagynyng.

?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens ii. sig. Ej Howe many celles hath the brayne after his length.

1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Ee1^v History..answereth to one of the Celles, Domiciles, or offices of the Mind of Man; which is that of the Memorie.

1718 M. Prior Alma iii, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 365 The Brain contains ten thousand Cells: In each some active Fancy dwells.

1785 W. Cowper Task vi. 11 It [sc. the sound] opens all the cells Where Mem'ry slept.

1835 H. Miller Scenes & Legends N. Scotl. ix. 140 The corresponding cells of understanding and memory.

1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 481/1 We understand all about the convolutions and the gray matter of the brain, and know just where the memory cells are, and where lie the coils of imagination and ideality.

b. gen. Any one of a number of small compartments or niches into which a larger structure is divided, as a compartment of a dovecote, a section of a drawer or cabinet, a pigeonhole, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > [noun] > an enclosed space or place > compartment or chamber

chambera1398

cellulea1400

partition1465

traversea1500

cell1577

concameration1638

apartment1679

thecaa1680

partitionment1851

compartment1866

cube1937

cubicle1938

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 169 For the tame Pigions..they make..certayne hollowe roomes, and celles for them.

1661 J. Ray Let. 14 Sept. in Corr. (1848) 4 [The box] must have almost infinite cells and divisions to contain all the varieties of seeds and fruits.

1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 74 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. Cells, resembling those of Cabinets for Rarities.

1780 J. Walters Poems 30 Who in these walls, with jewels rare beset, Built the first cell of yon proud cabinet.

1859 W. C. Bryant Lett. Traveller 2nd Ser. 142 This wall..is pierced with five rows of cells or niches, one above the other, into which the coffins are shoved endwise.

1924 Entomologist's Rec. (verso rear cover) Lift-off glazed tops. Camphor cells. Lined cork or peat. 40-drawer, 12/6 per drawer. 20-drawer, 1/- per drawer.

1996 Early Amer. Life (Nexis) Feb. 8 For transplanting seedlings, there are many types of small peat pots, fiber pots,..or trays divided into cells.

8. Any one of the typically hexagonal wax compartments in a honeycomb.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > superfamily Apoidea (bees) > honeycomb > cell in

cella1398

room1579

cabin1611

working hole1735

pollen cell1888

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 288 Such wonyng places [sc. of bees] and celles ben alle sexe cornered.

a1425 (a1349) R. Rolle Meditations on Passion (Uppsala) (1917) 44 Also, swete Ihesu, þi bodi is lyke to an hony combe, ffor it is eche way fulle of cellis, and eche celle fulle of hony.

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 175^v Theyr coames that they make are wrought full of holes, whiche holes..are theyr celles..: these celles they doo all fyll with Hony.

1609 C. Butler Feminine Monarchie iv. sig. D6^v This combe containeth about six celles of the bignes & fashion of the Bees cells.

1715 I. Watts Divine Songs 29 How skilfully she builds her Cell! How neat she spreads the Wax.

1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VIII. 70 The cells of the bees are perfect hexagons.

1816 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. (1818) II. xix. 147 After her great laying of male eggs in..May she [sc. the queen bee] oviposits in the royal cells.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 97 A bee-keeper would cut out the cells of drones.

1908 Times 24 Apr. 17/3 The term ‘foundation’ refers to thin sheets of wax uniformly impressed with exact reproductions of the bases of the cells which bees construct.

1960 D. C. Braungart & R. Buddeke Introd. Animal Biol. (ed. 5) xii. 194 When..pollen is packed in the..cells in the combs some honey is mixed with it. This mixture in the cells of the combs is frequently called ‘bee bread’ and will keep indefinitely.

2004 Backwoods Home Mag. July–Aug. 24/1 As each cell in the honeycomb is filled, the bees seal it with beeswax.

a. Biology. Any of various larger chambers in the structure of a tissue or organism, typically with known functions. Now largely disused, except in Botany when describing the locules of an ovary or the thecae of an anther.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > indentation or cavity > [noun] > depression or cavity

pita1275

holec1300

cella1398

den1398

follicle?a1425

purse?a1425

pocketa1450

fossac1475

cystis1543

trench1565

conceptory1576

vesike1577

vesicle1578

vault1594

socket1601

bladderet1615

cistern1615

cavern1626

ventricle1641

bladder1661

antrum1684

conceptaculum1691

capsule1693

cellule1694

loculus1694

sinus1704

vesicula1705

vesica1706

fosse1710

pouch1712

cyst1721

air chamber1725

fossula1733

alveole1739

sac1741

sacculus1749

locule1751

compartment1772

air cell1774

fossule1803

umbilicus1811

conceptacle1819

cœlia1820

utricle1822

air sac1835

saccule1836

ampulla1845

vacuole1853

scrobicule1880

faveolus1882

the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > [noun] > an enclosed space or place > compartment or chamber > having a function

cella1398

clean room1961

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. xcix. 991 Þe greynes [of pomegranates] beþ y-ordeyned in here owne celles by passyng wonder craft of kynde.

?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 67 Þogh it [sc. the matrice] haue noght but two..open holowenesses..neuerþelatter it haþ eche of hem þrefoldely cellis and one in þe myddel, so þat (after Mundyne) þere ben founden in it 7 receptacles.

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. xxiii. 174 After them certayne hollow little huskes or Celles.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 139 They [sc. bitches] bring forth many at a time sometime fiue, seuen, nine, or twelue; for so many celles hath the female in her wombe.

1676 J. Beaumont Let. 7 Apr. in H. Oldenburg Corr. (1986) XII. 244 The stone call'd Cornu Ammonis, shapt like a Ramms horne, is very frequent in this clay... Most of ye lesser stones..appeare somewhat hollow at ye broad end, wth cells comming downe inwardly from ye toppe of ye stone, resembling those in ye flowers of corrall, wch terminate in branches.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Coniferous In which Cone are many Seeds, and when they are ripe the several Cells or Partitions in the Cone gape or open, and the Seed drops out.

1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) I. 320 Capsule roundish, with as many cells as there are styles.

1845 J. Lindley School Bot. (1858) i. 16 The interior of the ovary is called the cell.

1851 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca i. 39 Horizontal sections exhibit a cellular net-work, with here and there a dark cell, which is empty.

1887 Bot. Gaz. 17 66 The anther cells are widely separated; one stands vertically, facing the corresponding cell of the other stamen.

1918 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 45 404 Stamens two, the anthers one-celled with vestiges of a second cell.

1944 Amer. Midland Naturalist 31 751 Before fertilization occurs, the ovule occupies but a small fraction of the cell, but, as the fruit matures, most of the cavity is filled.

1991 A. D. Bell Plant Form (1993) i. 146/3 Each such carpel contains a cavity, the ovary (or ‘cell’) into which develop one or more ovules each borne on a stalk.

b. Any of various pores, cavities, or (typically small, air-filled) chambers in the structure of tissues, natural mineral substances, or (now often) man-made materials. In earliest use describing what is now understood to be sense 15a, which appeared to be empty spaces when examined by Hooke and Grew under low-resolution microscopes.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > minerals > mineral structure or appearance > [noun] > cavity

cell1665

negative crystal1831

glass-cavity1857

the world > life > biology > substance > [noun] > interstices in

cell1665

areola1848

the world > life > biology > substance > cell > [noun]

cell1665

macrogametocyte1903

1665 R. Hooke Micrographia xviii. 112 These pores, or cells [in cork] were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of one continued long Pore.

1673 N. Grew Idea Phytol. Hist. ii. iii. 65 The Microscope..confirms that these pores are all, in a manner, spherical, and this part..an infinite Mass of little Cells or fixed Bubles.

1797 R. Towson Trav. in Hungary 289 It is what the Germans call hardened clay, but cellular; the cells in some places are partly filled up with a fibrous substance like decomposed pumice.

1845 C. Darwin Jrnl. (ed. 2) xxi. 493 The central part is coarsely cellular, the cells decreasing in size towards the exterior;..the outside crust of finely cellular lava.

1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. ii. i. 41 Cellular or areolar tissue is composed of numerous lamellæ, which by their interlacement intercept a number of open spaces termed cells.

1901 Lancet 28 Dec. 1793/1 The rarity of heart tubercles is explained by the scarcity of cells or cavities (hollow spaces) between the muscular fibres of the heart.

1939 C. W. Dunham Theory & Pract. Reinforced Concrete 317 In this structure, the 12-in. slabs between the cells, and the parapets, were poured after the forms for the cells were removed.

1980 Polymer Testing 1 283 An important feature of cellular plastics is that the cells or cavities of which they are composed may be interconnecting (open cells) or non-connecting (closed cells).

1995 Jrnl. Volcanol. & Geothermal Res. 68 261/1 Late-stage vesicles coalesce by puncturing through triangular glass filaments or thin..membranes separating adjacent cells.

10.

a. The metal socket in which the lens of an optical instrument such as a microscope or telescope is mounted.

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > lens > [noun] > socket for mounting lenses

cell1704

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Microscope Object-Glasses..fix'd in Brass Cells ready to screw on.

1785 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 75 44 Unscrewing the object-glass or speculum a little in its cell.

1889 G. M. Hopkins Exper. Sci. (1893) xiv. 309 The [telescope] lens is retained in its cell by a flat strip..of brass which is sprung into the cell and pushed down against the lens. The cell is fastened to the tube by common wood-screws.

1924 Jrnl. Sci. Instruments 1 229 The portion of the front lens usually employed for mounting it into a metal cell is used for transmitting light to the object.

2005 A. Chapman England's Leonardo iv. 59 Each lens would be mounted in a turned wooden or metal cell and secured at their correct operational distances by a cardboard tube.

b. A compartment within a scientific apparatus, esp. one designed to hold a sample (typically of fluid) while it is investigated, tested, etc. Cf. sense 13.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > trial, test, or testing > [noun] > a sample > container for

cell1863

1863 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 152 607 I sometimes employ a small cell with parallel faces of quartz, sometimes a wedge-shaped vessel... The cell being filled with the solvent, a minute quantity of the substance is introduced, and the progress of the absorption is watched as the substance gradually dissolves.

1900 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 158 A 10 per cent. solution of carbamide in a cell 15 mm. in thickness transmits all rays to λ 2140.

1973 D. H. Williams & I. Fleming Spectrosc. Methods in Org. Chem. (ed. 2) i. 2 A matched cell containing pure solvent is also prepared, and each cell is placed in the appropriate place in the spectrometer.

2005 Spectrochimica Acta B 60 140/2 The mixing of the sample and reductant takes place at the interface of the two glass spikes located roughly one-third from the top of the reaction cell.

c. A cavity gouged out, or a small chamber made on or mounted on to a microscope slide to contain an object for examination in a suitable medium.

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > magnification or magnifying instruments > [noun] > microscope > slides > part of

sunk cell1862

cell1870

1870 J. H. Martin Microsc. Objects Figured & Described 105 The better methods of preparation are:—to cut a thin section after maceration in hydrochloric acid diluted with two parts water, then to mount in a cell with a fluid composed of acetic acid 1 part, water 2 parts.

1881 W. B. Carpenter Microscope (ed. 6) v. 216 Where large shallow cells with flat bottoms are required (as for mounting Zoophytes, small Medusæ, etc.).

1918 A. C. Stokes Aquatic Microsc. i. 33 This is done by making a ring of cement on the slip, thus enclosing a circular space called a cell, which can be made of any depth by applying more after the first application has dried.

1974 N. Z. Jrnl. Zool. 1 383 The rest of the beetle was pulled apart..and mounted on a cell slide or placed in glycerol.

2001 A. J. Bard & M. V. Mirkin Scanning Electron Microsc. 61 In some cases, the glass or plastic tube is eliminated by using just epoxy glue to form the cell in the microscope slide.

11. The cup-like cavity occupied by an individual polyp in some colonial invertebrates, esp. cnidarians and bryozoans. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > colony or compound organism > [noun] > structure of colony > cup in which polyp is lodged

cell1712

calicle1848

the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Polyzoa > [noun] > member of > cup-like cavity occupied by polyp

cell1712

1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs I. 96/2 The Extremities, or Ends of the [coral] Branches, are soft, and also produce little Balls,..divided commonly into six Cells [Fr. cellules].

1847 W. B. Carpenter Zool.: Systematic Acct. II. §1053 This horny tube is enlarged at certain points into sheaths or cells for the protection of the Polypes; within these the individuals can retract themselves.

1859 C. Kingsley Glaucus (ed. 4) 73 Each polype cell is edged with whip-like spines.

1881 Science 22 Oct. 506/1 Zoœcium or cell.—‘The chamber in which the Polypide is lodged’.

1960 Jrnl. Paleontol. 34 458/1 The colony is generally irregularly botryoidal in shape and in life composed of ellipsoidal or ‘pear-shaped’ cells.

†12. Geology. Probably: a chamber-like geological structure constituting (part of) the conduit of a fumarole. Obsolete. rare.

ΚΠ

1727 A. Hamilton New Acct. E. Indies II. liv. 287 Wells of Fire, that continually burn in their own Cells.

13. Originally: a container for an electrochemical system for generating electricity. Later chiefly: the container and the electrochemical system it houses; the basic unit of a battery. Also: a half-cell of a galvanic cell. Cf. sense 10b.The first systems of this type consisted either of a metallic anode and cathode within an electrolyte (the voltaic cell) or of a system of two electrodes, each in a separate electrolyte between which only the flow of ions is possible (the galvanic cell). A set or stack of electrode pairs in an electrolyte (a voltaic pile) was also originally designated a cell.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > galvanism, voltaism > [noun] > voltaic cell

cell1801

standard cell1864

Bunsen cell1870

Clark cell1884

concentration cell1888

cadmium cell1893

1801 H. Davy in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 91 402 When the apparatus is used, these cells are filled, in the Galvanic order, with different solutions, according to the class of the combination.

1828 Oxf. Cycl. III. 521 The plates [in Children's battery] are..immersed in the cells of a trough.

1848 C. V. Walker Man. Electr. 329 A single cell of this battery is represented in fig. 142. It consists essentially of a copper cell A, etc.

1882 H. Watts Dict. Chem. II. 428 The two liquids in each cell being separated by a porous diaphragm.

1928 Times 24 Feb. 8/1 Standard batteries are made up of cells ³/ ₄in. in diameter by 2¹/ ₈in. in height.

1974 M. Clifford Encycl. Home Wiring & Electr. iii.44 The mercury cell was one of the earliest efforts to decrease cell size while supplying required current without an excessive loss of battery voltage.

2005 Jrnl. Power Sources 146 785/2 With uniform cells of matching capacities, the performance of the pack is maximized.

14. Any one of a number of spaces into which a surface is divided by linear partitions: spec.

a. Architecture. Any one of the spaces between the ribs of a vaulted roof.

ΚΠ

1830 W. Whewell Archit. Notes German Churches 25 A roof consisting of six cells, which may be called, therefore, sexpartite.

1835 R. Willis Remarks Archit. Middle Ages vii. 78 note Such cells are termed Welsh vaulting cells.

1899 C. H. Moore Devel. & Char. Gothic Archit. (ed. 2) iii. 64 The oblong form of the compartment gives great inequality in the spans of the arches, but the ends of the cells of the vault..are brought to a common level in a curious manner.

1904 W. R. Lethaby Mediæval Art vii. 155 An additional transverse rib was put at the intersection of the diagonal ribs, and the cells of the vault were modified accordingly.

1962 P. Frankl Gothic Archit. i. iii. 135 The high position of the windows makes the lighting of the cells of the vault unusually complicated.

1998 R. G. Calkins Medieval Archit. in Western Europe xiii. 190 The galleries had windows placed high in their exterior walls under awkward, upturned outer cells.

b. Entomology. Any of the spaces between the nerves of the wings of insects.

ΚΠ

1836 W. E. Shuckard tr. H. Burmeister Man. Entomol. 97 The spaces enclosed by these veins are called areolets (areolæ), or cells [Ger. Zellen] (cellulæ, Jurine);..those lying close to the marginal rib are..Jurine's, cellulæ radiales; those succeeding to them,..cellulæ cubitales of Jurine.

1836 W. E. Shuckard tr. H. Burmeister Man. Entomol. (Descriptions of Plates) 644 Wing of a bee a, Marginal vein..d, Marginal cell. e e, Cubital cells.

1895 J. H. Comstock & A. B. Comstock Man. Study Insects 421 In the figures of wings in this chapter both the veins and the cells are numbered.

1944 R. Matheson Entomol. for Introd. Courses iii. 58 Cells completely surrounded by veins are called closed-cells; those that extended to the margin of the wing are called open cells.

1970 Florida Entomologist 53 97 These two species are..quite set apart from B. nana, however, in the presence of a small but complete second radial cell and of coarse microtrichia in the wing.

2004 Cretaceous Res. 25 809/1 Forewing with Rs [= radial sector] reaching margin of wing; cell r closed.

15. Biology.

a. The fundamental, usually microscopic, structural and functional unit of all living organisms, which consists of a small quantity of protoplasm enclosed within a membrane, typically contains a nucleus or nucleoid and other organelles and internal compartments, and is capable of utilizing energy, synthesizing proteins and other biomolecules, and (usually) replicating itself.Although Robert Hooke, Nehemiah Grew and other writers used the word for microscopic cavities found in plant tissues (see quot. 1673 at sense 9b), the modern understanding of the cell is usually taken to begin in the early 19th cent. with the work of J. B. Purkinje and other (mainly French and German) botanists and anatomists, and is particularly associated with M. J. Schleiden (in plants) ( Arch. f. Anat., Physiol. u. wissensch. Med. (1838) 137) and T. Schwann (in animals) ( Mikroskop. Untersuchungen (1839)).

ΚΠ

1839 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 129 358 He [sc. Theodor Schwann] has shown not only that animal tissues in general, like those of plants, are reducible to modifications of vesicles, or as he calls them ‘cells’,—but that the mode of origin of the vesicles or ‘cells’ is essentially the same in animals as Schleiden had discovered it to be in plants.

1851 W. B. Carpenter Man. Physiol. (ed. 2) 7 We shall hereafter see that a cell, or closed vesicle, formed of a membranous wall, and containing fluid, may be regarded as the simplest form of a living body.

1871 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) II. xii. 264 The yeast-plant..is an assemblage of living cells.

1892 E. R. Lankester tr. E. Haeckel Hist. Creation (ed. 4) II. 49 There soon arise organized communities of cells, and out of these, tissues.

1920 Lancet 25 Dec. 1295/2 The cell picture of sections made of living tissues is quite different from that shown when dead cells are examined.

1954 I. Asimov Chemicals of Life iii. 38 The cell has little mitochondria which hold enzymes arranged in order.

1986 New Phytologist 102 602 Virtually all the cells contained numerous chloroplasts.

2007 Daily Tel. 22 Jan. 15/8 The gene produces an enzyme, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which helps determine the rate at which cells divide.

b. With distinguishing word denoting a particular type of cell or the tissue or organism from which a cell is derived.accessory, alpha, Aschoff cell, etc.: see the first element.

ΚΠ

1839 W. Francis tr. F. J. F. Meyen Rep. Progress Veg. Physiol. 17 M. Morren is..of opinion, that these short pleurenchymatous cells are of the same origin and purport as the other cells, and are produced as it were from spheroid cells, the so-called merenchyma.

1855 A. Bain Senses & Intellect Introd. ii. 16 The countless millions of nerve cells.

1907 B. P. Colton Physiol. iii. 71 The blood is composed of a clear liquid, the plasma, and the blood cells, or corpuscles.

1937 Life 13 Sept. 69/3 In fruit-fly germ cells Geneticist Morgan found granules arranged in four different ways like strings of beads.

1964 E. J. H. Corner in B. Dixon From Creation to Chaos (1993) 41 There will be time enough to learn about the ocean, where the plant-cell evolved, and there will probably be time enough to learn about the seashore where this cell grew into the plant form.

2006 Family Circle Nov. 96/2 A sample of cervical cells is smeared on to a slide for examination.

16. Each of a number of identical volumes into which space or a crystal is notionally divided; spec. = unit cell n. at unit n. and adj. Compounds 2, or primitive cell n. at primitive n. and adj. Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > crystallography (general) > crystal (general) > crystals (other miscellaneous) > [noun] > cells

cell1894

1894 Ld. Kelvin in Proc. Royal Soc. 55 1 The homogeneous division of any volume of space means the dividing of it into equal and similar parts, or cells, as I shall call them, all sameways oriented... An interesting application of this problem is to find for a crystal..a homogeneous arrangement of partitional interfaces such that each cell contains all the atoms of one molecule.

1915 W. H. Bragg & W. L. Bragg X-Rays & Crystal Structure vii. 111 Whatever class of symmetry the crystal belongs to, this enables us to measure up an elementary cell of its structure.

1931 Zeitschr. f. Kristallogr. 79 501 The cell chosen is..not necessarily the primitive, i.e. smallest cell, as such a cell would often demand a description in oblique and inconvenient axes.

1966 C. R. Tottle Sci. Engin. Materials iii. 50 Atoms in a simple cubic cell occupy 52% of the available space, those in the diamond structure 34%.

1999 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96 8332/1 In this transformation..the unit cell of the crystal undergoes a bifurcation into different, lower symmetry unit cells.

17. (a) A region of fluid or gas that can be treated as a unit with respect to its circulation; esp. = convection cell n. at convection n. Additions. (b) Meteorology. An area of localized convective activity, esp. such an area within a storm (also more fully storm cell).

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > liquid > [noun] > a quantity of > small > unit of circulation

cell1916

1916 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 32 529 The layer rapidly resolves itself into a number of cells, the motion being an ascension in the middle of a cell and a descension at the common boundary between a cell and its neighbours.

1934 D. Brunt Physical & Dynamical Meteorol. xii. 215 The Bénard cell is perhaps the clearest illustration of the possibility of generating vorticity in a fluid in which pressure is not a function of density alone.

1948 Jrnl. Meteorol. 5 72/1 A thunderstorm is most often composed of several regions of convective action which are herein termed ‘thunderstorm cells’.

1982 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 18 Oct. 27/2 This will enable pilots to better gauge the height of storm cells and the weather at specific altitudes.

2007 Dynam. Atmospheres & Oceans 43 41 There exist two different states of the Hadley cell over the eastern Pacific.

18.

a. Each of the locations in a statistical table or tabular display which may be occupied by a single datum, statistic, etc. Also more generally: a location in a matrix-like diagram.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > groups or arrangements of data > statistical table > location within

cell1923

1923 R. Pearl Introd. Med. Biometry & Statistics iv. 78 There are 8 × 12 = 96 elemental cells in this table.

1946 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 66 Figures were..worked out to make a fourfold contingency table... The first cell of each table contained the number of cases in which the prayer..was regarded as familiar.

1972 Sci. Amer. May 115/1 It is easy to prove that nine kings, eight bishops or eight rooks are needed to attack all vacant cells on a standard chessboard.

2007 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 17 Jan. 3 To correct the resultant error you are forced to spend what feels like hours re-writing a long list of spreadsheet cell formulae.

b. Computing. An identifiable or addressable unit of memory or data storage; esp. one with a capacity of one bit or one word. Cf. sense 7b.

ΘΚΠ

society > computing and information technology > hardware > [noun] > primary storage or main memory > areas or blocks

memory cell1892

storage location1949

cell1950

1950 Math. Tables & Other Aids Computation 4 32 Each binary digit of a 30-digit word, for example, is represented by a single elemental magnetized area, or ‘cell’, in each of 30 separate tracks.

1960 M. G. Say et al. Analogue & Digital Computers viii. 215 The most important feature of a store in a digital computer is..the mechanism by which a particular digit cell may be selected in order to record a new digit or to read the existing one.

1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing x. 133 A computer memory with addressable cells or positions is analogous to a mail sorter with pigeon-holes.

2006 Internat. Herald Tribune (Nexis) 12 Dec. 17 That has made it possible to build tiny memory cells that can store digital 1's and 0's by means of electricity rather than light.

19. A small group of people (occasionally a single person) working within a larger organization as a nucleus of political, esp. revolutionary, activity; (also) the headquarters of such a group.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > a party > [noun] > small nucleus

cell1925

1924 Workers' Weekly 1 Aug. 8/1 Factory groups are..the basic units of the Party, the fundamental cells out of which the whole organism has to be built.]

1925 Glasgow Herald 25 Apr. 10 They were Communists and were carrying membership cards of Communist cells.

1931 Morning Post 6 Aug. 12/4 The Viennese police have discovered a Communist ‘cell’ in..a district of the city.

1939 G. B. Shaw Geneva i. 20 My butler..tells me that my footman..is a cell... A communist cell. Like a bee in a hive. Planted on me by the Communists to make their dreadful propaganda in my household!

1958 L. A. G. Strong Treason in Egg v. 93 What if the thing was organised like an underground cell in war-time, when each member of the resistance knew only his own little bit of the chain of activity.

1995 T. Clancy Op-Center lxxviii. 348 I have received incontrovertible evidence that a cell of South Korean soldiers..was behind today's bombing.

2000 Newsweek 1 Jan. 12/2 Various terrorist groups or ‘cells’ around the world declare allegiance to bin Laden.

20. A photovoltaic device; spec. = solar cell n. at solar adj. and n.¹ Compounds 3.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > voltage > photovoltaics > [noun] > photocell

photoelectric cell1890

photoscope1890

photocell1891

rectifier cell1906

photronic1932

solar battery1954

cell1955

solar cell1955

1955 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 26 Aug. 10/1 The cells on exhibit run electric motors... And they use only a single electric lamp as a light source.

1965 Science 26 Mar. 1560/1 The cells are capable of an output of 150 watts in good weather.

2000 M. A. Green Power to People i. 8 When sunlight falls on the cell, an electrical output is generated..allowing these cells to be used as a battery that can..last as long as the sun shines.

21. The local area covered by one of the short-range radio stations in a mobile phone system. Cf. cellular adj. 6.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > area covered in cellular system

cell1977

1977 Business Week 28 Mar. i34/1 The Chicago test involves mobile units in vehicles utilizing only the largest, eight-mile cell size.

1988 Independent 23 Aug. 21 Cellular radio gets its name from the structure of the network—calls are made in one area or ‘cell’ through the cell's base station into the public network.

2005 P. Metcalfe & R. Metcalfe Excel Senior High School: Engin. Stud. (ed. 2) v. 299 Each cell is theoretically a hexagonal region as this allows the geometric fitting of adjacent regions into a continuous mosaic.

22. Telecommunications and Computing. In some modes of data communication, esp. asynchronous transfer mode: an information packet of fixed size (48 bytes of content and 5 bytes of header).

ΚΠ

1987 Computer Networks & ISDN Syst. 14 340/1 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a promising new multiplexing and switching concept based on asynchronous ‘on demand’ use of short fixed size time slots, called cells.

1995 Data Communic. Internat. Oct. 35/1 Sound is converted into digital data, packaged into the 44 bytes of payload in a 53-byte ATM cell, and sent to the recipient.

2004 Telecom Asia (Nexis) 1 Feb. 28 Cells have no error correction data or sequence controls, and they carry a virtual path or channel number rather than a full address.

Compounds

C1. General attributive (chiefly in senses 1 and 4).

cell door n.

ΚΠ

a1425 St. Anthony l. 45 in Anglia (1881) 4 121 (MED) Many men..come be dysyre to sene hym..be nyghtys-tyme abydyng at hys celle dore.

1671 E. Stillingfleet Disc. Idolatry iv. 267 A Monk could not knock at his Cell door, but he asked the Devil, what he did there in the Wilderness?

1786 S. Told Acct. Life (new ed.) 161 The cell doors were then locked and bolted upon us.

1853 C. Kingsley Hypatia II. vii. 171 At last his cell-door grated on its hinges.

1968 N. Cruz & J. Buckingham Run Baby Run ix. 89 ‘Okay, punk,’ the turnkey said as he closed the cell door, ‘Why don't you get up and jitterbug for us now?’

2001 J. T. Hallinan Going up River xvii. 208 These therapists..will speak to troubled inmates..through a slit..that runs the length of each cell door.

cell-grating n.

ΚΠ

1791 J. Bentham Panopticon i. 55 Postscript The other [party] immediately within the Cell-grating.

1876 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Tom Sawyer xxiii. 183 The boys did as they had often done before—went to the cell grating and gave Potter some tobacco and matches.

1956 Q. Film, Radio & Television 11 147 They then stand aside for Francis to look through a cell grating.

2005 US Fed News (Nexis) 21 Oct. [In building the prison] their biggest challenge..was lifting the 2-ton iron cell gratings into place.

C2.

a. General attributive (in sense 15a), as cell activity, cell adhesion, cell aggregate, cell ancestor, cell debris, cell degradation, cell evolution, cell fibre, cell filament, cell formation, cell graft, cell genesis, cell inclusion, cell infiltration, cell pigment, cell population, cell suspension, etc.Some of the more established compounds of this type are treated separately.

ΚΠ

1839 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 129 324 Schwann has suggested that the divisions in question in the ovum of the Frog, may, perhaps, be reducible to a ‘cell’-formation.

1842 J. Paget Rep. Chief Results Obtained by Microscope 8 When the nuclei lie on the surface of a flattened cell-fibre, they have a tendency to send off lateral branches.

1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. IV. 117/1 The only true black cell-pigment.

1850 J. A. Orr Princ. Surg. iii. ix. 341 The presence of blood in substance does not prevent the occurrence of cell evolution and vascularization.

1859 W. D. Moore tr. J. L. C. Schroeder van der Kolk On Minute Struct. & Functions Spinal Cord i. 16 It is very usual to see one or two of the cell filaments [Du. celdraden] running outwards into bundle of the anterior or posterior nerve-roots.

1892 Lancet 24 Dec. 1443/1 Certain other cell inclusions had been described by some observers abroad and by Dr. Ruffer and Mr. Walker in this country.

1907 Practitioner Jan. 19 The membranes and perivascular spaces showed some cell-infiltration.

1912 Times 5 Sept. 6/3 Life is now embodied in the cell, and every living being evolved from this will itself be either a cell or a cell-aggregate.

1929 Lancet 26 Oct. 886/1 During the first three years of its propagation by cell grafts the fibrosarcoma grew slowly.

1932 Times 25 Apr. 7/4 Schwann started from Schleiden's theory of cell-genesis which he expanded and adopted.

1938 F. G. Benedict Vital Energetics 209 The cell activity is controlled in large part by the supply of available oxygen and nutriment.

1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) viii. 155 In the early stages of healing they removed the cell debris, while in the later stages they were transmuted either into fibroblasts, into corneal fibre cells (keratoblasts) or possibly actually into corneal corpuscles.

1954 Biol. Bull. 107 141 Although no role of calcium in cell adhesion is indicated by the effect of calcium deficiency, one might be detected by the effects of calcium excess.

1961 Amer. Naturalist 95 255 A means of clarifying the role and behavior of sex chromosomes in the normal and malignant cell population.

1963 R. W. Van Norman Exper. Biol. xvi. 214 Obviously the number of cells per 5 ml is not uniform if the cell suspension in a 500-ml flask is more concentrated at the bottom than at the top.

1974 Radiation Res. 59 645 The ability of unirradiated cell grafts to repopulate irradiated tissues.

1982 Internat. Jrnl. Cancer 15 181 It is suggested that the endodermal carcinoma cells..as well as the mesenchymal and trophoblastic structures may have a common cell ancestor.

1991 R. Gallo Virus Hunting viii. 152 Perhaps the low rate of detection of RT we had found could have been due to cell degradation from samples being killed by a cytopathic virus.

1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) ii. 118/1 They lack nearly every other cell inclusion characteristic of eukaryotes; they have no endoplasmic reticula, Golgi bodies, mitochondria, chromosomes, or centrioles.

2004 Current Opinion in Plant Biol. 7 166/2 The life cycle of mosses begins with the germination of a haploid spore and the subsequent growth of a branched cell filament, the protonema.

(a)

cell boundary n.

ΚΠ

1848 W. Carpenter in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1847 131 Portion of the same layer, in which the cell-boundaries are obliterated.

1900 Biol. Bull. 1 196 The mass of protoplasm surrounding each nucleus is small, and the cell boundaries are very indistinct.

2002 Ann. Bot. 89 131/1 ‘Cell packet’ is simply a convenient item of histological observation wherever there are cells that are the product of a few cycles of division within a common cell boundary.

cell cavity n.

ΚΠ

1845 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 10 433 The cell-cavity seems destined chiefly to contain the secreted fluid until ready to be discharged.

1907 F. E. Clements Plant Physiol. & Ecol. vii. 157 The cuticle thus formed sometimes becomes very thick, filling half or more of the cell cavity.

2004 Forest Ecol. & Managem. 195 101/2 The latewood tracheids are those in which the width of their common wall in the radial direction is equal or greater than the width of either cell cavity.

cell cleavage n.

ΚΠ

1859 Brit. & Foreign Medico-chirurg. Rev. 24 301 This mode of increase is stated [by Virchow], however, to be infrequent; the cell-cleavage is, in all forms, the most common manner of growth.

1960 E. D. P. De Robertis Gen. Cytol. (ed. 3) xii. 339 The mechanism of cell cleavage is certainly different in animal cells than in plant cells.

2007 Trends Cell Biol. 17 74 (table) Delayed cell cleavage during preimplantation development.

cell contents n.

ΚΠ

1842 London & Edinb. Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Apr. 356 Whether the appearance is to be considered as analogous to that irregular form of nucleus and cell-contents characteristic of certain forms of tubercle, I do not know.

1912 J. R. Ainsworth-Davis tr. W. F. Bruck Plant Dis. vi. 101 The white, copiously branched mycelium..penetrates into the interior of the vine leaves, completely absorbing the cell contents.

2002 New Phytologist 156 424/1 Mammalian cells undergoing necrosis are characterized by cell swelling, cell lysis and by the leakage of cell contents.

cell culture n.

ΚΠ

1874 Amer. Naturalist 8 697 Their method of cell-culture..is applicable not only to the smaller fungi but to many other plants.

1959 J. A. V. Butler Inside Living Cell xix. 151 Cell cultures continue to grow..in artificial media for many generations, long after the animal from which the cells were obtained has died.

2003 New Scientist 11 Jan. 51 (advt.) You'll be supervising the cell culture of hybridoma cells and the preparation of harvests for the purification team.

cell death n.

ΚΠ

1867 J. M. Scudder Princ. Med. 250 It is still possible in some cases for this cell-death to be arrested.

1901 Science 29 Mar. 490/2 Hypertrophic degeneration or indirect cell death preceded by growth and structural change of the cell.

2005 Men's Health (U.K. ed.) June 23/2 The drug prevents cell death after a heart attack, largely by protecting the ticker against damaging proteins.

cell division n.

ΚΠ

1846 A. Henfrey tr. C. Nägeli in Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 220 The lines..are the septa, by which the cell-division is effected [Ger. durch welche sich die Zellen theilen].

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 971 This is effected by the rare kind of cell-division which is called meiosis or reduction-division, in which the number of chromosomes is reduced by a half.

2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Jan. 79/1 Normal human cells grown in a test tube simply stop dividing after a specific number of cell divisions.

cell elongation n.

ΚΠ

1849 Brit. & Foreign Medico-chirurg. Rev. 4 187 Fibres also may be formed..by cell elongation or division.

1897 Bot. Gaz. 23 163 It is a region of cell elongation rather than of cell division.

1992 W. T. Parsons & E. G. Cuthbertson Noxious Weeds Austral. 659 (table) Propachlor... A root-absorbed anilide compound..which inhibits cell elongation and protein synthesis.

cell form n.

ΚΠ

1821 tr. A. P. de Candolle & K. Sprengel Elements Philos. Plants iv. 174 These primitive forms may be reduced to three, the cell-form [Ger. Zellform], the tube-form, and the spiral form.

1910 Geogr. Jrnl. 37 366 Other genera have kept the cell-form almost as in Dinophysis, but the membranes are converted into swimming apparatus.

2007 Virus Res. 125 36 (caption) The cell forms most frequently observed at a given time..were examined at high magnification.

cell fusion n. [after German Zellfusion (1869 in the passage translated in quot. 1877)]

ΚΠ

1877 A. W. Bennett tr. O. W. Thomé Text-bk. Struct. & Physiol. Bot. ii. 37 The union of cells into tissues and cell-fusions [Ger. Zellfusionen] is permanent, and is combined with a limitation in various ways of the functions of the separate cells.

1967 Times 16 Dec. 7/3 My own use of the technique of cell fusion, for example, is in the field of cancer produced by viruses.

2004 Nature 15 July p. xi/2 The pendulum has swung to cell fusion, rather than transdifferentiation, as an explanation for apparent cell-fate switching.

† cell-germ n. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1842 Lancet 26 Nov. 306/1 The cytoblastema..becomes converted into granules, which are termed cell-germs or cytoblasts.

1890 Philos. Trans. 1889 (Royal Soc.) B. 180 206 A medulla developed from some invisible cell-germ has expanded to more than an inch in diameter.

cell growth n.

ΚΠ

1844 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 102 Another portion [of the tissue] is the result of cell-growth.

1897 Science 28 May 829/2 Removal of obstacles to growth..may be the explanation of all pathological cell-growths.

2006 Mother & Baby Aug. 32/1 Folic acid is essential for your baby's cell growth, and it reduces the risk of your baby developing neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, by 70%.

cell killing n.

ΚΠ

1958 Science 19 Dec. 1548/2 The intensity effect in spermatogonia might have been due to secondary causes—that is, selection as a result of cell killing or other interference with the dynamics of the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium.

1993 S. Milligan & A. Clare Depression & how to survive It (1994) iv. 99 The immune system is divided into the so-called humoral system..and a cell-mediated system which responds by direct cell killing—cytoxicity—as well as by the production of substances including interferon.

cell life n.

ΚΠ

1843 W. B. Carpenter Princ. Human Physiol. (new ed.) xi. 451 The doctrine of cell-life is as true, therefore, when applied to animal as to vegetable nutrition.

1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. ii. 45 This vegetative phase of cell life is frequently referred to as the ‘resting’ period or interkinesis.

2006 BioEssays 28 253 Mitochondria are essential for maintaining cell life but they also play a role in regulating cell death.

cell mass n. [after German Zellenmasse (1846 in the passage translated in quot. 1847)]

ΚΠ

1847 A. Henfrey tr. K. Müller in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 19 249 The four spores are formed at the same time, and certainly not..by the mechanical division of the cell-mass into four parts by septa.

1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) i. 1 In man and other multicellular organisms the environment is twofold: one which surrounds the body or cell-mass..and one which surrounds each individual cell.

2006 Science 28 Apr. 516/3 To make ES [= embryonic stem] cell lines, scientists next isolate the group of cells called the inner cell mass from week-old cloned embryos and coax them to grow in culture dishes.

cell motility n.

ΚΠ

1916 A. J. Carlson Control of Hunger in Health & Dis. i. 5 This is in all probability not the mechanism that induces increased cell motility in state of cell hunger.

1974 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 124/2 They [sc. microtubules] appear to be involved in the production of certain types of cell motility.

2007 EMBO Jrnl. 26 1221 Hypoxia is a microenvironmental stress in wounded skin, where it supports wound healing by promoting cell motility.

cell multiplication n.

ΚΠ

1844 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 18 107 They are rapidly undergoing the process of cell-multiplication.

1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) viii. 155 The repair of the severed axons of nerves cannot be due to cell multiplication as the axon is the process of a nerve cell which cannot divide in any case.

2007 Bioorganic & Medicinal Chem. 15 2386/1 The complete process of cell multiplication is mediated by various enzymes.

cell nutrient n.

ΚΠ

1911 Amer. Breeders Assoc. Rep. Meeting 1909 6 438 Some cytologists and a noted embryologist thought that the cytoplasm (which we consider the media, or cell nutrient)..might account for segregation.

2007 Biomaterials 28 663/1 The medium was changed 2-3 times a week to maintain an adequate supply of cell nutrients.

cell nutrition n.

ΚΠ

1852 H. Ancell Treat. Tuberculosis viii. 735 Some of these measures have a more direct agency on cell nutrition.

1907 Lancet 2 Feb. 376/2 It is certain that ferments play an important part in cell nutrition.

2003 Spine Jrnl. 5 128/1 Decreased end plate permeability has been hypothesized as an important mechanism of disc degeneration by restricting cell nutrition.

cell proliferation n.

ΚΠ

1860 F. Chance tr. R. Virchow Cellular Pathol. iii. 66 When cerebral matter forms in the ovary, it does not arise out of pre-existing cerebral matter, nor through any act of simple cell-proliferation [Ger. Wucherung].

1914 Times 10 Apr. 10/2 Certain nitrogenous substances, which will experimentally give rise to cell-proliferation and forms of tumours in animals, have been detected.

2005 Science 12 Nov. 307/3 The peptide thwarts this process..thereby blocking estrogen-induced cell proliferation in a way not observed in other anticancer drugs.

cell surface n.

ΚΠ

1860 J. A. Porter Outl. First Course Yale Agric. Lect. 37 Water..is sucked upward from cell surface to cell surface, until it gets to the leaves.

1956 Times 4 Aug. 10/1 When tumour cells come into contact with each other no adhesion..occurs, and the cell surfaces slide over each other.

2005 Isis 96 146/2 The same biological entities, such as oncogenes or cell-surface markers, exist both as normal biological phenomena and as signs of pathology.

cell stage n.

ΚΠ

1843 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Invertebr. Animals ii. 25 The very step which the Infusoria take beyond the primitive cell-stage invests them with a specific character as independent and distinct in its nature as that of the highest and most complicated organisms.

1878 Lancet 7 Dec. 803/2 There was an arrest of development of the hair at the cell stage.

2007 Developmental Biol. 302 335 (caption) Numbers at the top of the diagram indicate the cell stage.

cell structure n.

ΚΠ

1845 Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Aug. 605 Notwithstanding the discrepancy with regard to common appearances, the cell structure appears to preserve a fixed standard of decrease.

1954 E. P. Abraham in H. W. Florey Lect. Gen. Pathol. xiii. 244 The absorption coefficient for ultraviolet light..will be very high, for example, in cell structures that are rich in nucleic acid.

1996 D. W. Brown Aromatherapy (Teach Yourself Ser.) ii. 11 The heat and steam cause the cell structure of the plant material to burst and break down, thus freeing the essential oils.

cell type n.

ΚΠ

1849 T. Addison On Healthy & Diseased Structure ii. 79 Scrofulous diseases express the retrogradation of a special texture to some earlier cell-type.

1964 Times 24 Nov. 13/7 The situation is immensely complex, every tissue and every cell-type being different.

2006 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Feb. 37/2 Long tubes made of cell membrane readily form between immune cells and a variety of other cell types.

(b)

cell-free adj.

ΚΠ

1891 Science 2 Jan. 1/1 This discovery..was soon followed by the work of Buchner and Nisseu on the bacteria-killing power of the cell-free blood-serum.

1946 Nature 6 July 24/2 Antibiotically active cell-free watery extracts could be prepared from cultures on Dorset's egg medium.

2002 Borneo Post 18 Nov. 16/1 This was the first successful use of a human cell-free haemoglobin solution in a paediatric patient to manage life-threatening anaemia due to an autoimmune disease.

cell-killing adj.

ΚΠ

1921 W. Irwin ‘Next War’ v. 60 Cellars will never form a defence against sinking, lethal, cell-killing gas like Lewisite and its probable successors.

2000 J. Mann Murder, Magic, & Med. (rev. ed.) iii. 85 The cytotoxic (cell-killing) drugs employed in the treatment of cancer almost invariably induce vomiting.

cell-lined adj.

ΚΠ

1864 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 600/2 The mucous membranes are continuous with the cell-lined vesicles or tubes of the various glands.

1985 Amer. Zoologist 25 53 Historically nemertines have been viewed..as acoelomate bilaterians possessing a cell-lined blood vascular system.

2005 Jrnl. Vascular Surg. 42 1186/2 (figure) Transverse section of naturally resolving thrombus shows cell-lined recanalization channels (arrows) around the organizing thrombus by 7 days.

cell-specific adj. [after German zellspezifisch (1913 in the passage translated in quot. 1914)]

ΚΠ

1914 J. O. Gavronsky & W. F. Lanchester tr. E. Abderhalden Defensive Ferments Animal Org. 19 There is a great future for cell-specific therapy.

1950 Amer. Naturalist 84 438 The action of the recessive is cell specific and of a recognizable type.

2004 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 16028/2 The recombination event takes place only in selected cells because a cell-specific promoter controls the expression of the recombinase.

C3.

cell adhesion molecule n. Molecular Biology any of various proteins present on the surface of a cell which mediate its attachment to other cells or to a substrate; abbreviated CAM.

ΚΠ

1975 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: Protein Struct. 412 110 The different properties of discoidin and pallidin are consistent with their suggested role as species-specific, cell adhesion molecules.

1989 New Scientist 4 Mar. (Inside Sci. Suppl.) 2/2 A recent advance is the discovery of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) on the surfaces of cells. These control the stickiness of one cell to another.

2002 Science 4 Oct. 17/1 Adenovirus infects epithelial cells by binding to the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR), which is a cell adhesion molecule found on the basolateral cell surface.

cell architecture n. Biology the structure and form of a living cell, spec. that of the cytoskeleton; (also) the structure of a tissue considered in terms of the form and spatial relations of its constituent cells.

ΚΠ

1854 Househ. Words 25 Mar. 131/1 In the economy of the cell-architecture nothing is forgotten; and although compelled to erect these solid buttresses, the cell does not the less remember to leave here and there a small spot at which the walls retain their original delicacy and remain easily permeable by fluids.

1942 J. Needham Biochem. & Morphogenesis iii. 658 The intracellular lattice of protein molecules forming the cell architecture.

2007 Jrnl. Nanosci. & Nanotechnol. 7 298 The advantages of the confined and lateral cell architecture as compared to the conventional vertical cell concept are explored.

cell biologist n. an expert or specialist in cell biology.

ΚΠ

1914 Science 30 Oct. 640/2 Nucleic acids were discovered much later by Altman, a cell biologist.

1972 Amer. Jrnl. Med. 52 1 Cell biologists have calculated that at least 80 per cent of cellular RNA is localized in the ribosomes.

2003 L. Moss What Genes can't Do iii. 81 Additional subcategorizations of the Golgi are variably distinguished by different cell biologists and for different cell types.

cellblock n. originally U.S. a building or section of a building containing prison cells.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > ward or division of prison

ward1338

death house1837

cell house1855

cellblock1867

society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > cell > line of cells

cellblock1867

row1873

1867 E. C. Wines & T. W. Dwight Rep. Prisons & Reformatories U.S. & Canada i. 95 The cell blocks are of dressed stone, one hundred and sixty-five feet by twenty feet, five ranges high, and each range containing thirty-five cells.

1958 G. M. Sykes Society of Captives v. 94 Close friends possess a stronger claim than..the relative stranger from another cellblock.

2002 S. Turow Reversible Errors (2003) 118 When the main gate to the cellblock finally smashed closed behind them, Gillian's heart squeezed.

cell body n. Biology (a) a cell of a unicellular organism, constituting its entire body; (b) the main body of a cell, containing its nucleus and organelles (as opposed to various projections or elements of external structure such as cell wall, flagella, dendrites, etc.).

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > nervous system > substance of nervous system > [noun] > nerve cell > parts of

axon1842

cell body1851

neuron1893

neurite1894

neuroplasm1894

perikaryon1897

neurofibril1898

axon hillock1899

telodendrion1899

axoplasm1900

neurofibrilla1902

cyton1910

soma1947

neurotubule1948

neurofilament1955

neurode1987

1851 T. H. Huxley in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 8 439 Food stored up..within the cavity of its cell-body.

1878 F. J. Bell & E. R. Lankester tr. C. Gegenbaur Elements Compar. Anat. 16 A subordinate part of the cell-body.

1942 W. J. S. Krieg Functional Neuroanat. i. 7 If a nerve fiber is cut, the part distal to the cell body dies after a time and with it the myelin sheath.

2006 Environmental Health Perspectives 114 1545/1 With cholinergic agonists such as nicotine, damage to neuronal projections in the forebrain results in reactive sprouting at the cell body.

† cell-bred adj. Obsolete born, raised, or formed in a cell.

ΚΠ

1743 A. Pope Dunciad (rev. ed.) ii. 356 A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band.

1789 ‘A. Pasquin’ Poems I. 39 Shall cell-bred wenches lift their pond'rous limbs..To flagellate my tortur'd body thus?

1849 I. Taylor Loyola i. vii. 162 He had played his part as a man of the world long enough to rid himself of those illusions which might have misled a cell-bred religious legislator.

cell bridge n. Cell Biology (a) = cell junction n.; (b) a bridge of cells between adjacent parts of an organ, groups of cells in a culture, etc.

ΚΠ

1896 E. A. Schäfer & G. D. Thain Quain's Elements Anat. (ed. 10) III. iv. 205 All the cells are connected by ‘cell-bridges’ with one another as in a stratified epithelium.

1933 Amer. Naturalist 67 67 This reminds us..of the conditions described above where a cell bridge connected two growing cultures.

1999 Trends Plant Sci. 4 17/1 They [sc. epidermal cells] also appear to remain responsive to contact, which results in the formation of graft-like cell bridges between appressed surfaces.

2006 Zoology 109 15/2 After the meiotic divisions the spermatids start to differentiate. They are connected via extensive cell bridges and their cytoplasm becomes more electronlucent.

cell chamber n. chiefly Biology (a) the area inside a cell, esp. a plant cell, defined by the cell membrane or wall; (b) a compartment in a scientific instrument which holds cells or acts as a cell to contain a sample.

ΚΠ

1847 E. Wilson Dis. Skin (ed. 2) i. 8 The nucleolus, therefore, is an ‘aggregated granule’, the nucleus a tier..of aggregated granules surrounding the former; and the cell-chamber a tier of aggregated granules inclosing the whole.

1908 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 81 65 The centre tube leading to the cell-chamber was closed with a glass cap.

1953 New Phytologist 52 100 In higher plants and algae the shape of the protoplast is determined by the form of the cell chamber.

2006 C. Allen in D. E. Gardner Toxicol. of Lung (ed. 4) vi. 133 When using volatile chemical agents in these systems, the cell chamber should be sealed.

cell column n. (a) Anatomy a cylindrical or linear array of cells, esp. in the central nervous system; (b) Medicine the cellular fraction (packed cells) of a centrifuged blood sample (cf. packed adj.¹ 3a).

ΚΠ

1860 G. Buchanan Kölliker's Man. Human Microsc. Anat. 345 The secerning parenchyma of the liver..consist [sic] of solid networks of the hepatic cell-columns.

1943 Science 17 Dec. 545/2 Red cells..can be resuspended and repacked three times without showing any change in the length of the cell column.

1969 R. C. Truex & M. B. Carpenter Human Neuroanat. (ed. 6) xvii. 423/1 In the cat there is evidence that corticopontine fibers arising from the sensorimotor cortex project in a somatotopical manner onto two longitudinally oriented cell columns within the pontine nuclei.

2002 B. Elling et al. Why-driven EMS Enrichment xxxii. 356/2 Because there are far more RBC's than either white blood cells..or platelets, the ‘cell column’ height is a good indication of the number of red blood cells.

cell cortex n. [originally after German Zellhülle (1902 in the passage translated in quot. 1904)] Cell Biology a specialized layer of cytoplasm found on the inner face of the cell membrane, typically containing a network of actin microfilaments and associated proteins.

ΚΠ

1904 E. B. Titchener tr. W. M. Wundt Princ. Physiol. Psychol. ii. 40 It is probable that the nerve-cells are everywhere devoid of a true cell-cortex. They vary in form from spherical to irregularly angular, and differ..extraordinarily in size.

1937 Biol. Bull. 73 367 Sodium and potassium ions appear to be capable of provoking a release of calcium ions from the cell cortex.

2001 F. M. Harold Way of Cell vii. 140 The cell cortex is comparatively stiff and strong, thanks in part to mechanical tension directed inward.

cell count n. chiefly Medicine a determination of the number of cells, esp. blood cells or bacteria, in a sample of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, milk, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > measure > [noun] > count

cell count1899

plate count1901

platelet count1909

1899 A. E. Taylor in J. M. Keating Cycl. Dis. Children V. 561 The lower the cell-count the higher the color-index, as a rule.

1962 Lancet 5 May 929/1 The cell-count reached 2000 cocci per ml.

2000 Farmers Weekly 18 Feb. 24/3 The herd average cell count for January also made good reading at 195,000/ml.

cell counter n. any device or machine used to perform cell counts.

ΚΠ

1892 S. Solis-Cohen & A. A. Eshner Essent. Diagnosis 95 The corpuscular richness of the blood is determined by means of an instrument called a hemocytometer or blood-cell counter.]

1910 F. Lafar Techn. Mycol. II. ii. li. 225 Far greater reliability attaches to determinations made with the cell-counter.

1950 Science 28 Apr. 477/3 Construction of an electronic cell counter to assist studies of comparative anatomy.

2001 S. Fedoroff & A. Richardson Protocols for Neural Cell Cult. (ed. 3) xxvi. 336 Most electronic cell counters cannot distinguish between viable and non-viable cells.

cell cycle n. Biology †(a) the cyclic changes (actual or supposed) between certain types of cell form (obsolete rare); (b) the sequence of events by which a eukaryotic cell replicates itself and divides in two.

ΚΠ

1888 P. Geddes in Chambers's Encycl. (new ed.) II. 160/1 The study of the unit-mass of protoplasm or cell should next be..generalised into the conception of a simple ‘cell-cycle’, ranging between a more or less passive and encysted spheroidal form to a less or more motile (amœboid or elongated) one.

1901 Biol. Bull. 2 263 I have never observed in Crepidula a rotation of the nuclei, independent of the spindles, at so late a stage in the cell cycle.

1968 New Eng. Jrnl. Med. 8 Feb. 313/1 The mammalian cell cycle has been divided into four major stages: the G₁ or presynthetic; S or DNA synthetic; G₂ or postsynthetic; and finally the M or mitotic phase.

2001 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 9 Oct. a2 Scientists have already started testing drugs designed to influence the cell cycle and make cancer cells stop dividing.

cell differentiation n. the usually irreversible process by which unspecialized cells acquire the specific structural and functional features characteristic of a tissue, organ, etc.; the state of having such specialized features.

ΚΠ

1863 M. Goldsmith Rep. Hosp. Gangrene 43 Pyæmia may occur independent of any suppuration, in connection with pathological process where the warmest of Virchow's admirers fail to discover any cell-growth or cell-differentiation.

1884 Amer. Naturalist 18 245 These, particularly in some of the Fungi, become very complexly organized, yet they display little or no cell-differentiation.

1962 D. C. Braungart & R. H. Arnett Introd. Plant Biol. v. 66/2 In its broadest sense growth is concerned with three phases of cellular development: cell division, cell elongation, and cell differentiation.

2005 Biotechnol. & Bioengineering 92 492/2 The chief factor limiting stem cell-based therapies is the inability to control the induction and maintenance of cell differentiation in situ.

cell doctrine n. Biology (now chiefly historical) = cell theory n.

ΚΠ

1844 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Pract. Med. 40 28 We intended to point out the several applications that have been made of the Cell-doctrine to pathological inquiries.

1920 Science 26 Mar. 314 Using many animals to demonstrate the truth of the cell doctrine is not more confusing than the study of profit and loss in arithmetic by problems involving vinegar, woolen goods, automobiles and ostrich feathers.

2001 F. M. Harold Way of Cell iii. 18 In separate publications that appeared in 1838 and 1839, Schleiden and Schwann presented their ‘cell doctrine’: plants and animals are not indivisible wholes but composites made of innumerable cells.

cell gallery n. a raised walkway or gallery connecting the cells in a prison.

ΚΠ

1791 J. Bentham Panopticon i. 17 Postscript The Cell-Galleries are..perfectly commanded by every station in the Inspection-part.

1852 H. Melville Pierre xxvi. 491 That sundown, Pierre stood solitary in a low dungeon of the city prison... The long tiers of massive cell-galleries above seemed partly piled on him.

1946 J. Monaghan Legend of Tom Horn xxiv. 240 Proctor climbed the iron steps to the cell gallery and put the key into the lock of the two convicts' cell.

1998 Northern Echo (Nexis) 6 Nov. 12 Look up at the three Victorian cell galleries and the difference is striking.

cell house n. originally and chiefly U.S. = cellblock n.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > ward or division of prison

ward1338

death house1837

cell house1855

cellblock1867

1855 Pennsylvania Jrnl. Prison Discipline & Philanthropy Oct. 205 Four about the cell house, six about the kitchen and bake house.

1930 C. R. Shaw Jack-Roller iii. xii. 159 The damp cells in the cellhouse had made my muscles..ache.

2007 Beacon Jrnl. (Akron, Ohio) (Nexis) 25 Apr. 8 More than one cell house was involved in the disturbance at the New Castle Correctional Facility.

cell junction n. Cell Biology (a) a synapse (now rare); (b) an area of direct contact between the cell membranes or cytoplasm of adjacent cells; esp. a desmosome or plasmodesma.

ΚΠ

1866 Fortn. Rev. 3 740 The special growths accompanying memory must operate at these cell junctions.

1886 Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Bot. 21 619 (caption) Cell-junction in longitudinal section.

1953 New Phytologist 52 152 There are many small air-spaces within the parenchyma in the form of small caniculae at cell junctions.

1995 C. Nielsen Animal Evol. v. 36 The body of a cellularian sponge is surrounded by the pinacoderm, a layer of epithelial cells which are not connected by cell junctions.

2003 D. Sternberg Ultimate Guide Freshwater Fishing iii. 339 Found mainly in boggy lakes and small streams, redbellies have a distinct lateral band, a second, less-distinct band just above it and a reddish to yellowish belly.

cell layer n. Biology a layer of cells, spec. the endoderm, mesoderm, or ectoderm of the early embryo.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo parts > [noun] > membrane and layers of cells

germinal layer1836

cell layer1843

mucous layer1846

germ layer1855

mesoblast1857

blastoderm1859

head fold1873

mesoderm1873

epiblast1875

hypoblast1875

splanchnopleure1875

mesenchyme1881

acroblast1884

mesothelium1886

epimere1890

mesectoderm1894

mesendoderm1894

cœloblast1895

placode1907

shield1913

mesentoderm1921

meristoderm1945

bilayer1962

1843 Lancet 25 Nov. 264/1 The situation and relation of these cells between the cell-layers forming the animal and vegetative laminæ, make it possible that they belong to that which becomes what certainly manifests itself as the vascular lamina.

1893 J. Tuckey tr. B. Hatschek Amphioxus 55 All changes from the blastula onwards can be traced to these primitive cell-layers.

1947 A. D. Imms Outl. Entomol. (ed. 3) iii. 79 After fertilization, the resulting segmentation nucleus divides and many of the nuclei thus produced pass outward to form, with the periplasm, a continuous cell layer or blastoderm.

1993 Brit. Jrnl. Orthodontics 20 3/1 DNA was then hydrolysed with 0.1 M NaOH..and the cell layer removed by agitation with a rubber policeman.

cell lethal n. and adj. Biology (a) n.a mutation which causes the death of the cell in which it occurs; (b) adj.lethal to cells; causing cell death.

ΚΠ

1934 Science 2 Feb. 109/1 Papers [were] presented on..somatic segregation, crossing-over and gene deficiencies as cell-lethals.

1934 Amer. Naturalist 68 165 In every case the deficiency tested had a cell lethal effect.

1962 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 157 121 It is difficult to see how dominant cell lethals can be important in aging.

2002 L. I. Held Imaginal Discs v. 100/1 Much of the later data came from a cell-lethal mutation whose gene product was then unknown.

cell lethality n. Biology the property of causing cell death; (also) cell death itself.

ΚΠ

1950 Amer. Naturalist 84 358 Demerec..has tested various deletions for cell-lethality.

1983 BioScience 33 334/2 Cell lethality induced by near-ultraviolet radiation is primarily due to lesions produced in cellular genetic material (DNA).

2006 A. S. Grandison in J. G. Brennan Food Processing Handbk. v. 153 Remarkably little chemical damage to the system is required to cause cell lethality, because DNA molecules are enormous compared to other molecules in the cell.

cell line n. Biology a population of cells sharing a common lineage; spec. such a population maintained in cell culture and consisting of cells which are descended from a single primary culture.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > material > [noun] > culture or medium > cells in culture

cell strain1932

cell line1940

1926 Q. Rev. Biol. 1 32/1 In many cases there was complete loss of the germinal cell line.]

1940 Trans. Amer. Microsc. Soc. 59 342 Meyer..traced the cell-lineage of N. rutili, and found that from the two-cell stage on, the plasma density of the blastomeres was dissimilar in that one cell-line was richer in plasma, had a different mitotic rhythm, [etc.].

1961 M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) xxv. 379 Cell lines such as the HeLa strain are generally used for routine culture and antibody titration.

2003 Philadelphia Inquirer 15 May a3/4 The President ordered that stem-cell research could continue but that scientists receiving federal funds could use only cell lines that were available as of that day.

cell lineage n. Biology the manner in which the parts of a multicellular organism develop from the blastomeres of the embryo; the line of descent of a cell from a blastomere or other embryonic precursor; a population of cells sharing such a line of descent.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo development processes > [noun]

fetalization1819

segmentation1851

maceration1873

neurulation1878

blastulation1889

concrescence1890

cell lineage1892

myelination1892

spiral cleavage1892

medullation1893

myelinization1900

myelogenesis1901

induction1928

myelinogenesis1931

horizon1942

1892 E. B. Wilson in Jrnl. Morphol. 6 361 The cell-lineage of Nereis.

1946 Nature 5 Oct. 461/2 Tissue culture made it possible to prove that the cell-lineages of the ordinary somatic cells of the body are indefinite or indeterminate.

1992 P. R. Crocker & G. Milon in C. E. Lewis & J. O'D. McGee Macrophage iii. 117 Haematopoiesis is a complex physiological process which involves the simultaneous growth and differentiation of eight distinct cell lineages, all of which are derived from a single cell, the self-renewing pluripotent stem cell.

2002 S. J. Gould Struct. Evolutionary Theory v. 383 He made his primary reputation in ‘cell lineage’ studies of the fates and products of the earliest blastomeres.

cellmate n. a person with whom a cell (in later use, a prison cell) is shared.

ΚΠ

1728 Mem. Eng. Officer 326 He had a hole Brother of the same Order, that was his Cell-mate, or Chamber-fellow.

1850 G. Thompson Prison Life & Refl. iii. ix. 331 At night, he was locked in his cell with his sickly cell-mate, without any light, where he frequently had fits!

1942 P. G. Wodehouse Let. 11 May in Yours, Plum (1990) iii. 90 When I was in Loos Prison the first week, a dozen of us were released because they were sixty, including my cellmate William Cartmell.

2003 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 22 Apr. 12/2 At the Pelican Bay State Prison..inmates are kept inside their tiny cells 22½ hours a day. Most have cellmates, but one-third are kept alone.

cell-mediated adj. Biology brought about by the action of cells; spec. (esp. in cell-mediated immunity) designating immunological processes that depend upon the activity of T lymphocytes (as opposed to antibodies); cf. humoral adj.

ΚΠ

1959 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 242 469 It is probable that the response of the injected cells against the host takes the form of orthodox (i.e. cell mediated) homograft rejection.

1973 Frederick (Maryland) Post 6 Dec. a11/1 They developed a specific, practical method for measuring the cell-mediated response and used it to study infants vaccinated with live rubella virus.

1984 M. J. Taussig Processes in Pathol. & Microbiol. (ed. 2) ii. 147 In a non-infected individual, a positive delayed reaction in the skin indicates the presence of cell-mediated immunity as a result of previous infection or immunisation.

2004 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 165 556/2 This packing arrangement..is highly indicative of a cell-mediated mechanism of fibrin deposition.

cell membrane n. Biology a thin, semipermeable lipid bilayer with incorporated proteins which encloses a cell and regulates the flow of materials in and out; cf. membrane n. 1e.

ΚΠ

1840 M. Barry in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 130 603 The thickening of the wall is not a thickening of the cell-membrane itself.

1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. ii. 34 Such a cell would consist of a spheroidal or irregular mass of protoplasm, limited by a definite cell membrane or cell wall.

2006 New Scientist 18 Feb. 38/1 The ‘minisleep’ mutant carries a change to a single gene, encoding a protein involved in potassium transport across cell membranes.

cell memory n. Biology the continuation or repetition of a particular metabolic process or other activity by a cell; spec. the phenomenon whereby cells remain committed to a particular line of differentiation during multiple generations of descent.

ΚΠ

1889 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 2 269 To speak of the habit of a cell is not as confusing as to speak of cell-memory.

1905 Jrnl. Hygiene 5 520 The active formation of antibody during the course of the primary response has given a bias to the cell metabolism, leaving a kind of cell-memory so far as that stimulus is concerned.

1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xvi. 901 The mechanisms of cell memory may be..cytoplasmic, involving molecules in the cytoplasm that act back on the nucleus to maintain their own synthesis.

2005 E. Jablonka & M. J. Lamb Evol. in Four Dimensions vii. 251 It is quite clear that without cell memory, plants and animals with many types of differentiated cells simply could not have evolved.

cell nest n. [after German Zellennest (1870 in the passage translated in quot. 1873, or earlier)] Medicine and Biology = nest n. 7b.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > substance > cell > types of cells > [noun] > motile or amoebic cell > cluster of

nest1871

cell nest1873

swarm1900

macula densa1942

1873 D. B. St. John Roosa et al. tr. C. Stellwag Treat. Dis. Eye (ed. 4) 364 The cell-nest without distinct limit is lost in the surrounding tissue.

1968 H. O. Mackey & J. P. Mackey Handbk. Dis. Skin (ed. 9) xxxvii. 378 The ‘horny pearl’ (‘epithelial pearl’ or ‘cell nest’) is made up of layers of epithelial cells arranged concentrically and displaying from without inwards the various stages of cornification.

1997 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 139 277/2 [These] endothelial cells initially form compact cell nests with tight cell–cell contacts.

cell nesting n. Medicine and Biology the formation of cell nests.

ΚΠ

1897 Australasian Med. Gaz. 20 Oct. 512/2 Microscopically there were typical down growths of epithelium, marked cell nesting, and presence of prickle cells.

1914 Lancet 7 Feb. 388/2 A section taken from..under the left nostril showed marked prolongation downwards of the epithelium with distinct cell-nesting.

2003 Cryobiology 47 144/1 Investigations of freezing of normal and neoplastic liver and some other tissues revealed cell nesting as a mechanism to hold water in tumors.

cell nucleus n. [after German Zellenkern (1844 in the source translated in quot. 1846)] Biology = nucleus n. 7.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > substance > cell > cell organelle or contents > [noun] > nucleus

nucleus1833

cell nucleus1846

karyosome1894

1846 A. Henfrey tr. C. Nägeli Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 246 Cell-nuclei occur in all classes and orders of plants.

1888 Lancet 31 Mar. 633/2 These changes..are marked by abnormal cleavage and chemical alteration of the cell-nuclei.

1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. i. i. 3 The protoplasm is composed mostly of protein, the cell nucleus of nucleoproteins and lipins.

2004 Sci. News 20 Mar. 181/2 Ancient bones don't often yield mitochondrial DNA, which is located outside the cell nucleus and is inherited from the mother.

cell plate n. Botany a structure formed during the mitotic division of a plant cell when Golgi-derived vesicles containing cell wall precursors fuse to form a partition between the two daughter cells.

ΚΠ

1872 Lancet 7 Sept. 344/2 Each of these little segments or cylinders split longitudinally, and, unrolling itself, proved to be a square cell-plate or lamina, with a nucleus near its centre.

1960 K. Esau Anat. Seed Plants iv. 33 The exact nature of this cell plate, when it is first discernible, is not known, but it may possibly contain the pectic materials that later constitute the middle lamella.

2003 Planta 218 205/1 Cytokinesis involves the deposition of cell wall material during the formation and rapid outward expansion of the cell plate.

cell process n. (a) a projection from the body of a neuron or other cell (cf. process n. 13a); (b) a metabolic process or other activity occurring within a cell.

ΚΠ

1859 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 149 445 Some of them [sc. nerve fibres] partly enclose it; apparently in connexion with the cell-processes.

1885 Lancet 15 Aug. 300/2 He [sc. Virchow] says that the future will see a reaction in favour of the reestablishment of cell-life and cell-processes as the real foundation of diseased action.

1915 W. M. Bayliss Princ. Gen. Physiol. xi. 363 The work done in secretion is, in the main, of two kinds, although the ultimate source of both lies in chemical energy utilised in cell processes.

2004 C. Barnard Animal Behaviour v. 231 There are six touch receptors, each with a long cell process extending anteriorly and cemented to the hypodermis by a mantle.

cell sap n. Biology liquid substance found between, or within the cells of a tissue; (now usually) = hyaloplasm n. at hyalo- comb. form .

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > substance > cell > cell substance > [noun] > protoplasm or cytoplasm > types or forms of

cytoblastema1840

cell sap1842

hyaline1864

metaplasm1875

plasson1879

nucleoplasm1882

reticulum1883

hyaloplasm1886

mitome1886

paramitome1886

spongioplasm1886

paraplasm1887

paraplasma1891

trophoplasm1892

kinoplasm1894

blepharoplast1897

plasmagel1923

plasmasol1923

1842 F. J. Meyen in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 9 34 Indigo is produced in the intercellular sap (by which is meant the ordinary cell-sap).

1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. ii. 34 The spaces or meshes of this spongioplasmic network are filled with the less dense ground substance or cell sap, called also the hyaloplasm, paraplasm, or interfilar substance.

1992 D. G. Campbell Crystal Desert v. 100 They intercept invading viruses, bacteria, and protozoans, rupturing and leaking their cell sap onto the invaders, clumping onto them and causing them to disintegrate.

cell sheath n. Biology an additional external layer occurring around certain types of cell; esp. the myelin sheath of a neuron or a layer of mucilage or glycoprotein surrounding certain prokaryotes.

ΚΠ

1863 Philos. Trans. 1862 (Royal Soc.) 152 933 We have seen that the cell-sheath or wall is the product of, and indeed is constituted by, the very surface of the primitive nucleus or cell.

1904 New Phytologist 3 217 Cells about to develop into spores..exhibit two well-marked integuments at an early stage... The outer one (cell-sheath)..takes the form of a hollow, more or less cylindrical sheath, surrounding the inner investment.

1960 Jrnl. Biophysical & Biochem. Cytol. 8 816/2 The cells of blue-green algae have been described as lacking the rigid cell wall that is present in bacteria and as being bounded instead by two layers, the ‘cell sheath’..and the ‘inner investment’.

2001 Ann. Diagnostic Pathol. 5 21 There was abundant lymphoid infiltrate surrounding and invading the cell sheaths.

cell spot n. Entomology a spot of colour in the spaces between the nerves in the wings of some butterflies and moths.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths > [noun] > parts of > spot of colour between nerves

cell spot1899

1899 W. J. Ansorge Under Afr. Sun xii. 308 It is distinguished by the entire absence of the dark cell-spot.

1948 Ecology 29 461/2 The intermediates are judged by..the intensity of the orange pigment in the hind wing cell spot.

2000 M. F. Braby Butterflies of Austral. I. 240/2 Pelopidas agna may be distinguished from Parnara bada by the presence of..two cell spots on the fore wing in the female.

cell strain n. Biology a cell line; (also) a subculture of a cell line selected for a particular characteristic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > material > [noun] > culture or medium > cells in culture

cell strain1932

cell line1940

1932 Science 11 Nov. 446/2 The cell strain derived from the 17-day-old embryo showed a rate of cell multiplication that was consistently higher.

1958 Jrnl. Immunol. 81 426/1 Advances in tissue culture techniques have made available numerous stable cell strains..which have contributed to recent developments in virology.

2004 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 5946/2 Cell strains containing expression plasmids were grown aerobically.

cell substance n. [after German Zellsubstanz (1829 or earlier)] Biology †(a) the (supposed) substance from which cells develop; an instance of this (obsolete); (b) the constituent matter of a cell, (in later use) esp. the cytoplasm; (also) (as a count noun) any substance found in a cell.

ΚΠ

1842 London & Edinb. Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Oct. 886 The basis is a membrance of extreme tenacity..possessing the power of forming from that blood a whitish ‘cell-substance’, which is deposited in a layer around it.

1847 H. Smith tr. T. Schwann Microsc. Res. Animals & Plants 209 The cell-substance is..soluble in the cytoblastema, and crystallizes from it, so soon as the latter becomes saturated with it.

1874 A. E. J. Barker tr. H. Frey Histol. & Histochem. of Man 66 This primordial cell-substance is known at the present day by the name protoplasm.

1950 T. Caspersson Cell Growth & Cell Function iii. 61 There are two groups of cell substances that are more easily studied by microspectrographic procedures than any others. These are the proteins..and the polynucleotides.

2006 Alberni Valley (Brit. Columbia) Times (Nexis) 29 Nov. (Health section) 5 The paramount importance of the inorganic constituents of the cell substance was recognized.

cell theory n. [after German Theorie der Zellen (1839 in Schwann's book: see sense 15a)] now chiefly historical the theory that cells are the fundamental structural and functional units of life, sufficient to constitute a single-celled organism and serving as the working units of every multicellular organism.The cell theory is usually attributed to the work of Schwann and Schleiden: see sense 15a.

ΚΠ

1843 Lancet 24 June 451/2 To have a complete view of these structures we must combine the cell theory of Schwann and Müller, the coagulation principle.., and the process of organisation investigated by Kiernan.

1881 T. H. Huxley in Science 10 Sept. 428/2 The zoölogists and botanists, exploring the simplest and lowest forms of animated beings, confirmed the great induction of the cell theory.

1929 Sci. Monthly Sept. 226/1 If Schleiden and Schwann are the fathers of the cell-theory, Purkinje is at least its great uncle.

2007 D. Young Discov. Evol. (ed. 2) vii. 157 The process by which a cell divides was also observed, and was incorporated in the cell theory by Rudolph Virchow.

cell therapy n. Medicine (a) treatment of humans with living cells from various animal species, (formerly) used esp. for conditions associated with ageing; (b) treatment with various types of cell of human origin, (in later use) esp. stem cells; an instance of this.

ΚΠ

1901 J. R. Hawley New Animal Cellular Therapy viii. 67 Before attempting the employment of this cell therapy let the physician understand at the outset that his medical knowledge will be in more constant demand.

1957 Current Med. Pract. 1 33/1 The cell-therapy must be continued for a long time but the results are better than with any other treatment.

1989 Cancer Genetics & Cytogenetics 39 (Abstracts) 5 Cell therapy will not be limited to subsets of lymphocytes but will include macrophages and even nonhematopoietic cells such as endothelial cells.

2001 N.Y. Times 26 Aug. iii. 11/6 Therapeutic cloning would ‘never, ever fly’ because it is individualized cell therapy, not mass cloning, that is needed for cell therapies to succeed commercially.

cell tower n. Telecommunications a tower or mast which transmits and receives cell phone signals over one or more cells in a mobile phone system; cf. sense 21.

ΚΠ

1984 ABA Jrnl. July 48/2 This is accomplished without the user's knowledge by a transfer of calls from one cell tower to the next.

2003 Pop. Sci. Sept. 42/2 AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile have employed another technique..which triangulates a caller's location using three or more cell towers.

2015 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 3 Mar. b2/6 Google's service would offer voice and data primarily through Wi-Fi signals, and use cell towers only in areas beyond the reach of Wi-Fi.

cell transformation n. Medicine change in the form or function of a cell; spec. transformation of a normal cell into a neoplastic cell (cf. transformation n. 3i).

ΚΠ

1845 London Med. Gaz. 18 Oct. 71/1 The secretions, the organs of secretion, and the blood, are three marked and recognised stages of cell-transformation.

1906 Lancet 8 Sept. 655/2 The spontaneous development of cancer is supposed to depend on two factors: (1) the primary cancerous cell transformation and (2) the growth of this small cancerous area into a tumour.

1999 R. A. Weinberg One Renegade Cell viii. 83 Single oncogenes acting alone cannot transform fully normal cells into tumor cells, while various pairs of oncogenes..cooperate with one another to induce cell transformation.

cell tray n. Horticulture a seed tray divided into individual sowing compartments.

ΚΠ

1988 Gardener Feb. 44/4 Seeds..can be individually sown in pots or cell trays.

2005 Grow your Own Dec. 37/2 Beet seeds can be sown in ‘propapacks’ or cell trays for transplanting to give more reliable results.

cell wall n. [apparently after German Zellwand (1828 or earlier)] a rigid layer present outside the cell membrane in plants, fungi, algae, and many bacteria, consisting mainly of cellulose and other polysaccharides (in plants, fungi, and algae) or peptidoglycans (in bacteria), and providing cells with structure and protection.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > substance > cell > parts of cell > [noun] > wall or membranes

septum1720

cell wall1840

valve1852

periplast1853

stroma1872

ghost1879

endoplasmic reticulum1883

plasma membrane1893

plasmalemma1923

unit membrane1958

purple membrane1968

1840 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 130 551 Schleiden remarks, ‘The formation of secondary deposits on the inner surface of the cell-wall does not commence..until after the absorption of the cytoblast.’

1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 3 Older wood and cork thus consist of a mere framework of cell-walls.

1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. iii. x. 100 The pectose of the cell-wall is a condensation product of pectin and cellulose, that is, a pectocellulose, similar in constitution to the glycosides.

1959 Times 2 Jan. 11/3 Penicillin does not affect the growth of the staphylococcus but it does prevent its forming a cell wall.

2006 Science 11 Aug. 774 (caption) This differentiation process, mediated by the secreted factor xylogen, results in secondary cell-wall thickening and programmed cell death.

Derivatives

cell-less adj.

ΚΠ

1809 W. Martin Outl. Attempt Knowl. Extraneous Fossils ii. 110 Cell-less (ecellosum) without cells. Gorgoniae, &c.

1892 Amer. Naturalist 26 118 Conversion of the cortex to a cell-less pallium.

1999 J. Min in W. Hofkirchner Quest for Unified Theory of Information x. 153 Mycoplasma has a communication system, capable of independent self-replication and multiplication in the cell-less culture.

cell-like adj.

ΚΠ

1748 W. Gilpin Dialogue upon Gardens Lord Viscount Cobham 17 It appears quite Cell-like, stands retired, and is made of no other Materials but Roots and Moss.

1775 J. Ellis in Philos. Trans. 1776 (Royal Soc.) 66 15 The cell-like divisions..are only a row of single blebs of pith.

1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life Introd. 17 No morphological unit, nor even any cell-like or ‘cytoid’ body, can have been at work.

1940 Times 27 Dec. 5/6 In an East End district is a long line of cell-like structures.

1977 P. B. Medawar & J. S. Medawar Life Sci. xv. 122 The most obviously cell-like part of the neurone is called the cell-body or perikaryon, and this houses the nucleus.

2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 July b7/6 [He]..dismissed the staging as ‘little more than a “mise en espace”, with singers standing and singing in a cell-like chamber’.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	cell
释义	celln.¹ Brit. /sɛl/, U.S. /sɛl/ Forms: Old English cellan (inflected form), late Old English cellas (plural), Middle English–1500s sel, Middle English–1500s selle, Middle English–1600s cel, Middle English–1600s celle, Middle English–1600s sell, Middle English– cell; Scottish pre-1700 cel, pre-1700 celle, pre-1700 sel, pre-1700 sell, pre-1700 1700s– cell. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Partly a borrowing from French. Etymons: Latin cella; French celle. Etymology: Originally < classical Latin cella (see below); subsequently reinforced by Anglo-Norman cel, sele, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French cele, celle (French (now rare) celle ) dwelling consisting of a single chamber inhabited by a hermit or anchorite (second half of the 11th cent.), (especially small) monastery (first half of the 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman), storeroom (end of the 12th cent.), small room for a monk or nun in a monastery or convent (late 14th cent. or earlier), chamber in a temple (mid 15th cent.) < classical Latin cella store or larder, chamber in a temple, small room, poor man's apartment, slave's room, porter's lodge, coop, pen, compartment, cell of a honeycomb, in post-classical Latin also a monk's or hermit's cell (4th or 5th cent.; from 11th cent. in British sources), monastery (5th cent.), small, dependent monastery (7th cent.; frequently from 1182 in British sources), compartment of the brain (from 12th cent. in British sources) < the same Indo-European base as classical Latin celāre to hide (see cele v.). Compare Old Occitan cela (c1300; Occitan cèla), Catalan cel·la (late 13th cent.), Spanish celda (c1284 as †çelda; variant, with dissimilation of consonants, of †çella (c1270)), Portuguese cela (13th cent.), Italian cella (1300).The Latin word was also borrowed into other Germanic languages at an early date; compare Middle Dutch celle (Dutch cel ), Middle Low German celle , selle , zelle , Old High German cella , zella (Middle High German celle , zelle , German Zelle , †Celle ), and also (originally via Middle Low German; in later use in Swedish reborrowed < German or English) Old Danish selle (Danish celle ), Old Swedish sälle , cälle , celle (Swedish cell ), all earliest in sense ‘chamber of a hermit or anchorite’. French celle is rare after the Middle French period, and was superseded in all of its senses by cellule cellule n. The latter shows a semantic range similar to cell n.¹, although most of its senses are first attested later than the corresponding ones in English. In sense 11 after French cellule (1694 in this sense, in the passage translated in quot. 1712). In sense 14b after French cellule, scientific Latin cellula ( L. Jurine Nouvelle méthode de classer les Hyménoptères et les Diptères (1807) I. 2-3), originally via German Zelle. In sense 15 after German Zelle (in this sense, M. J. Schleiden 1838, in the source cited in the note at definition); compare French cellule (1824 in this sense). In sense 17 after French cellule (H. Bénard 1900, in Rev. gén. des sci. 11 1266/1, and 1901, in Ann. chimie et physique 23 65). In sense 19 apparently a transferred use of sense 15; compare e.g. Russian jačejka basic organizational unit of the Communist Party, lit. ‘cell’ (1919 or earlier in this sense; now historical), German Zelle (c1920 in this sense), French cellule (1920 in this sense). It is unclear whether in Old English the word is weak feminine (celle) or weak masculine (cella); in late Old English a strong masculine is apparently also attested (compare cellas (plural)). I. A small apartment, room, or dwelling. 1. a. A dwelling consisting of a single chamber inhabited by a hermit or anchorite. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > retirement or seclusion > secluded place or place of seclusion > [noun] > single chamber dwelling cellOE society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > other types of dwelling > [noun] > hermitage cellOE hermitagec1290 eremitagec1400 narrow cell1636 hermitary1754 OE tr. Bili St. Machutus 23 Þa se halga Machu wæs geondfarende þa mynstra, for lufan þara leorningcnihta, þa wæs he farende neah cellan [L. cellulam] anes Godes þeowes,..se wæs þeowiende Gode dæges & nihtes, æfter his mihtum. c1300 St. Dunstan (Harl.) l. 60 in F. J. Furnivall Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 36 (MED) For he nolde bi his wille no tyme idel beo, A priuei smyþþe bi his celle he gan him biseo. c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. Prol. l. 28 (MED) Ancres and Hermytes þat holdeþ hem in heore Celles. c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xviii. l. 7 Þer were suche eremites, Solitarie by hem-self and in here selles lyueden Wiþ-oute borwynge oþer beggynge bote of god one. a1500 (?c1425) Speculum Sacerdotale (1936) 197 Seynt Marcelle, the monke, dwellynge in a denne..seey..a sterre schynyng in the dore of his celle. 1597 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet ii. iii. 171 Bid her..come to shrift to Frier Laurence cell . View more context for this quotation 1690 J. Dryden Don Sebastian v. 130 Holy Hermites. Who there, secure in separated Cells, Sacred ev'n to the Moors, enjoy Devotion. 1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 69 Some got Tents and set them up in the Fields, carrying Beds,..and Provisions to eat, and so liv'd in them as Hermits in a Cell. 1762 R. Lloyd Poems 112 Thou, who delightest still to dwell By some hoar and moss-grown cell. 1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II i. iv. 5 His native land..seem'd to him more lone than Eremite's sad cell. 1875 H. E. Manning Internal Mission of Holy Ghost vii. 186 Whose homes are more bare and empty than the cell of an anchorite. 1948 G. P. Fedotov Treasury Russ. Spirituality 243 At the age of sixty-six, he [sc. St Seraphim] emerged from his secluded cell and turned to the suffering world. 2000 M. Howe Turkey Today vi. 72 Hidden in the rocky maze are innumerable chapels and monks' cells and more than 400 churches. b. figurative (in later quots. perhaps merging with sense 4). Chiefly poetic. ΚΠ 1530 Myroure Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 275 Aue christi cella, Hayle celle of cryste. 1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. G2 In thy shadie Cell where none may spie him, Sits sin. View more context for this quotation 1645 E. Waller Of Divine Love vi, in Poems (1893) 258 The soul contending to that light to flee From her dark cell. 1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost v. 109 [Reason] retires Into her private Cell when Nature rests. View more context for this quotation 1759 T. Gray Epit. Tomb-stone in Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 485 A heart, within whose sacred cell The peaceful virtues lov'd to dwell. 1816 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto III v. 5 Shapes which dwell Still unimpair'd, though old, in the soul's haunted cell. 1907 E. G. Gardner St Catherine of Siena xvi. 359 Without leaving the cell of self-knowledge, she goes forth in God's name, prepared to endure sufferings. 1968 W. R. Parker Milton I. iv. xi. 460 The Italian sonnet..is a page in a poet's diary, a comfortable cell for solitary thoughts. †c. In extended use (chiefly poetic and literary). A small and humble dwelling, a cottage. Also: a lonely nook; the den of a wild beast. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > small house > small ( and humble) house cotc893 cotlif1001 cotea1034 cratchc1325 shiel1338 cottagec1405 cot-housec1550 cell1577 shiel-house1804 the world > animals > by habitat > habitat > [noun] > dwelling place or shelter > of a wild animal cabin1377 closet1576 harbour1576 fort1653 cell1735 1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 11 What meaneth this Cell..at the entrance? This is syr, my Bayliffes lodging, I lay him by the Gate, that he may see who goeth in and out. 1625 F. Quarles Sions Sonets xi. sig. C3^v See how kings' courts surmount poore shepheards' cels. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Island vi. xi. 67 Deep in the earth she [sc. the badger] frames her prettie cell, And into halls and closulets divides. 1647 R. Herrick Noble Numbers 13 Lord, Thou hast given me a cell Wherein to dwell. 1735 W. Somervile Chace iii. 222 All the Race Carnivorous..retire Into their darksome Cells. 1756 E. Perronet Mitre i. xix. 5 Chaplains that bless the royal board,..The lordly Sees or humble Cells Of London and of York. 1808 E. Sleath Bristol Heiress I. 177 The zibelin from her haunts decoy'd; Or chas'd the ermine from his cell. 1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake ii. 93 Like hunted stag, in mountain cell. 1818 Classical Jrnl. 18 100 Deep cavern'd vaults, where tuneless night-birds dwell, Or lurks the bandit—in the Lion's cell. d. Applied to the grave (often with some notion of sense 4). Now chiefly in narrow cell: see narrow cell n. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > burial > grave or burial-place > [noun] buriels854 througheOE burianOE graveOE lairc1000 lair-stowc1000 lich-restc1000 pitOE grass-bedOE buriness1175 earth housec1200 sepulchrec1200 tombc1300 lakec1320 buriala1325 monumenta1325 burying-place1382 resting placea1387 sepulturea1387 beda1400 earth-beda1400 longhousea1400 laystow1452 lying1480 delfa1500 worms' kitchen?a1500 bier1513 laystall1527 funeral?a1534 lay-bed1541 restall1557 cellarc1560 burying-grave1599 pit-hole1602 urn1607 cell1609 hearse1610 polyandrum1627 requietory1631 burial-place1633 mortuary1654 narrow cell1686 ground-sweat1699 sacred place1728 narrow house1792 plot1852 narrow bed1854 1609 A. Gardyne Garden Grave & Godlie Flowres sig. D4 ^v O graue, (A seuen foote Cell,) made of the marble mold, His knighted Corps..thou shall haue. 1686 E. Arwaker tr. H. Hugo Pia Desideria i. iii. 19 Now my last breath is ready to expire, And I must next to Death's dark Cell retire. 1774 A. Dow Sethona iii. 46 The dark caves of death; those dreary cells, Where Egypt's monarchs lie. 1877 W. C. Bryant Among Trees 49 Their last rest, Their little cells within the burial-place. 2. A monastery or nunnery, generally of small size, dependent on some larger house. Now historical.In quot. lOE apparently denoting monasteries in general. ΘΚΠ society > faith > church government > monasticism > [noun] > religious foundation celllOE convent?c1225 monasterya1425 cœnobya1475 monks1556 cœnobium1817 reclusory1821 reclusery1835 society > faith > church government > monasticism > [noun] > religious foundation > small dependent celllOE conventicle1550 lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1129 Ealle þa priores, muneces & canonias þa wæron on ealle þa cellas on Englaland. c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 4808 (MED) In þe cite of bangor a gret hous þer was, Þat were vnder seue cellen; & þer of non nas Þat þre hondred monekes nere Inne oþer mo. ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) ii. l. 6446 A monke of a celle bare him wele þat tide. a1450 Rule St. Benet (Vesp.) l. 306 In non abbay wil þai dwell, Bot wendes about fro cel to cel. 1534 Act 26 Hen. VIII c. 3 §8 There be diuers celles apperteining to monasteries and priories. 1584 J. Hooker Catal. Bishops Excester sig. D.j Likewise at this time was builded the Priorie of S. Nicholas in Excester, by the Abbat of Battell, vnto which Abbie, this Priorie was a cell. 1651 N. Bacon Contin. Hist. Disc. Govt. 147 The Norman and French Cells were in his Predecessors time seized under this colour. 1726 N. Salmon Rom. Stations in Brit. 27 'Tis just by a Farm of the Earl of Suffolk's called St. Aylot's, which has been a Cell or Priory. 1772 T. Pennant Tours Scotl. (1774) 61 The house was once a cell to the Abby. 1870 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (ed. 2) II. App. 659 There was a priory of Lapley, which was a cell to Saint Remigius. 1908 New Schaff-Herzog Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 466 Sometimes the ‘cell’ was an important building, as Tynemouth Priory near Newcastle, England, which was a ‘cell’ of the Benedictine abbey of St. Alban's. 1997 D. H. Farmer Oxf. Dict. Saints (ed. 4) 122 Edward the Confessor gave Steyning church to Fécamp, which monastery established a cell of monks on the site of his old wooden church. †3. A storeroom. Also figurative. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > possession > supply > storage > [noun] > place where anything is or may be stored > store-closet or -cupboard cellc1230 warestall1508 warda1529 store-closet1825 store-cupboard1841 c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 79 He schawde þe celles of his aromaz. a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Isa. xxxix. 2 Ezechie..shewede to them the selle [L. cellam] of spices, and of siluer, and of gold, and of swote thingus. 1570 B. Googe tr. T. Kirchmeyer Spirituall Husbandry ii, in tr. Popish Kingdome f. 77^v Then vnto this let him applie his witte with all his might, To finde the chiefest seede to sowe... Canst thou not truly tell, What Garner for to seeke for this, or in what secrete Cell? 1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. G4 [They]..carieng it into their celles, and garners at home, keepe it. 4. Any one of a number of chambers in a building, typically intended for or inhabited by a single person. a. A small room for a monk, nun, etc., in a monastery, convent, or the like.Formerly also: †a room in an almshouse (obsolete). ΘΚΠ society > faith > artefacts > monastic property (general) > monastery or convent > parts of monastery > [noun] > cell houseOE cellc1300 cluse1481 society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > room > types of room generally > [noun] > small room parrockOE cellc1300 cabin1362 parclosea1470 camerelle?c1475 crib1600 narrow cell1636 pigeonhole1703 closet1728 box1773 cuddy1793 cubby-hole1842 roomlet1855 cubby1868 cubby-house1880 cwtch1890 cellule1894 c1300 St. Scholastica (Laud) l. 28 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 198 (MED) Wel þov wost þat i ne mai beo bi niȝte fram mine celle. 1340 Ayenbite (1866) App. 267 Þer byeþ Monekes þet uor claustres and uor strayte cellen. 1462 Hull Trinity House Rec. in N.E.D (at cited word) Paide for xliii sawne board boght for th' makyng of the Celles of th' said Trenyte House..iiijs. ijd. c1480 (a1400) St. Pelagia 329 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 213 Þe thryd day he come agane..to þe sel, quhare frere pelagius can duel. a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. Clxxix^v Some aduysed her to brenne incence in her cell. 1546 J. Bale Actes Eng. Votaryes: 1st Pt. f. 31 The sell of an holye Nonne. 1644 Hull Corporation Bks. 13 Apr. All such goodes and household stuffe as they should..use in their seuerall cells or rooms. 1663 A. Cowley Ess. in Verse & Prose (1669) 70 The Chartreux wants the warning of a Bell To call him to the duties of his Cell. a1750 L. Pilkington Mem. (1754) III. 187 I believe the Inn had formerly been a Convent, by the numerous little Cells and Cloysters. 1796 M. G. Lewis Monk I. ii. 63 The monks having attended their abbot to the door of his cell, he dismissed them with an air of conscious superiority. 1859 J. M. Jephson & L. Reeve Narr. Walking Tour Brittany xiii. 220 In passing along..I saw the cells of the sisterhood. 1876 J. Fergusson Hist. Indian Archit. iv. ii. 335 All round the court there is a peristylar cloister with cells. 1957 F. L. Cross Oxf. Dict. Christian Church 423/2 The Carthusians..say a Dry Mass of Our Lady in their cells after Prime. 1997 W. Dalrymple From Holy Mountain (1998) v. 303 The cells of the Celtic monks..preserved in the more remote corners of Ireland. b. A room for one or more inmates in a prison. Formerly also: a similar room in an asylum (cf. padded cell n.). Cf. prison cell n. at prison n. Compounds 1a.This sense, probably extended from 4a, emerged in the early 18th cent. with the promotion of solitary confinement for reformative penal purposes; a bank of cells was built in Newgate in the 1720s.condemned, observation, police cell, etc.: see the first element. ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > cell houseOE cabinc1522 hole1535 lodging1612 hold1717 cell1728 lock-up room1775 glory-hole1825 box1834 drum1846 sweat-box1870 booby-hutch1889 Peter1890 booby1899 boob1908 flowery dell1925 slot1947 1701 Hanging not Punishment enough for Murtherers, High-way Men, & House-breakers 20 In common Persons so much Roguery is learn'd among Numbers, that I think 'twere well, if, as In the Inquisition..every one, at least of the most notorious ones, had a Box or Cell to himself.] 1728 Ordinary of Newgate, his Acct. 12 Feb. 4 When I visited him in the Cell, he was very attentive to Prayers, and desir'd good Instructions. 1777 J. Howard State of Prisons (1792) 213 The rooms and cells [of Old Newgate] were so close, as to be almost constant seats of disease. 1812 Times 2 Jan. 4/3 One of the prisoners, who was confined in the adjoining cell, heard the rattling of his irons. 1828 T. Carlyle Burns in Edinb. Rev. Dec. 305 Tasso pines in the cell of a madhouse. 1873 Dark Side N.Y. Life 731 The cells on the second floor contain those charged with murder. 1946 N. Coward Diary 16 Oct. (2000) 66 Goering cheated at the last minute and managed to munch up a phial of cyanide of potassium in his cell. 1984 Jrnl. Substance Abuse Treatm. 1 iv. 237/1 They'd arrest them, imprison them, and let them kick cold turkey in a cell. 2003 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 22 Apr. 12/2 At the Pelican Bay State Prison..inmates are kept inside their tiny cells 22½ hours a day. c. colloquial. In plural (without article). Imprisonment, esp. solitary confinement as a punishment for offences against military law. Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > [noun] > in solitary confinement reclusion1800 separate confinement1849 cell1861 pindown1985 1861 Times 18 Sept. 12 No private's hair is as short as his unless he has been tried by Court-martial, or has got cells. 1891 R. Kipling Life's Handicap 23 You 'ave been absent without leave an' you'll go into cells for that. 1918 W. J. Locke Rough Road xvii At the worst they might give him cells when he recovered. 1929 J. Galsworthy Exiled iii. i In the Court yesterday, you give me a night cells for sleepin' out. †5. A small private room or apartment. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > room > types of room generally > [noun] > private or inner room bowerc1000 chamber?c1225 privy chambera1382 closeta1387 closera1400 conclavea1400 wardrobea1400 cell?1440 garderobe?c1450 retreatc1500 parlour1561 cabinet1565 cabin1594 in-room?1615 recamera1622 sanctum sanctorum1707 adytum1800 snuggery1812 sulking-room1816 sanctum1819 anderoon1840 inner sanctum1843 thalamus1850 growlery1853 tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. l. 1085 (MED) That al the day hit [sc. the bathhouse] may be warm and light The cellis suspensuris thus thou dight. a1475 J. Russell Bk. Nurture (Harl. 4011) in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 128 Serue hit [sc. ypocras] forth with wafurs boþe in chambur & Celle. c1500 Pilgrims Sea-voyage l. 64 in F. J. Furnivall Stations of Rome (1867) i. 40 (MED) He calleth a carpentere..To make the cabans here and there, With many a febylle celle. c1600 (c1350) Alisaunder (Greaves) (1929) l. 525 Nectanabus..passed in his paleis too a privie sell. 1659 J. Evelyn Let. 3 Sept. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) I. 366 Opposite to the House, towards the wood, should be erected a pretty chapel; and..six Apartments or Cells, for the members of the Societie. 6. Architecture. = cella n. (see also sense 14a). ΘΚΠ society > faith > artefacts > division of building (general) > nave > [noun] bodyc1390 boukc1420 middle pace1499 bulk1518 holy place1526 ship1613 bodystead1623 cella1652 nave1673 cella1676 nef1687 auditorium1728 a1652 I. Jones Most Notable Antiq. called Stone-Heng (1655) 101 The Pantheon hath its Cell enclosed with a continued solid Wall, and the Portico only in Front. 1742 G. Leoni tr. Archit. of Palladio (ed. 3) II. v. 10 Round Temples were anciently sometimes made open, that is, without a Cell [It. senze cella]. 1768 S. Riou Grecian Orders Archit. iv. 30 The walls of the cell of the temple were extended at the sides and at the back front, to cut into the diameteres of the columns. 1813 J. C. Hobhouse Journey xxiii. 341 Within the cell of the Temple all is desolation and ruin; the shafts of columns..are scattered about on every side. 1893 Eng. Hist. Rev. 8 317 A single hall or cell formed by four rectangular walls..which, as is well known, is the most ancient form of the Greek temple. 1963 P. Rawson in S. Lloyd et al. World Archit. 134 The earlier form of Hindu temple consisted of a single cell with a small, columned portico attached, an exact parallel to the cella of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. 1999 J. S. Curl Dict. Archit. 491/2 The peridrome is the space between the columns and the solid wall of the cell behind them, such as in a Greek temple. II. In extended use. A compartment; an enclosed space, cavity, or sac. 7. †a. More fully cell of the brain. Any of the (imaginary) cavities or compartments in the brain thought to be the seats of particular mental faculties, or to serve as pigeonholes for the storage of knowledge. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > nervous system > cerebrospinal axis > brain > parts of brain > [noun] > as (supposed) seat of faculty cella1393 cellulea1400 emporium1683 organ1806 brain centre1844 a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 1463 Of a man The wit..Is in the celles of the brayn. c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. l. 123 So febled was his celle retentif. c1450 in Mod. Philol. (1924) 21 390 The cellys of memor were yn euery thing fful clere, with out fantesye and ymagynyng. ?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens ii. sig. Ej Howe many celles hath the brayne after his length. 1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Ee1^v History..answereth to one of the Celles, Domiciles, or offices of the Mind of Man; which is that of the Memorie. View more context for this quotation 1718 M. Prior Alma iii, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 365 The Brain contains ten thousand Cells: In each some active Fancy dwells. 1785 W. Cowper Task vi. 11 It [sc. the sound] opens all the cells Where Mem'ry slept. 1835 H. Miller Scenes & Legends N. Scotl. ix. 140 The corresponding cells of understanding and memory. 1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 481/1 We understand all about the convolutions and the gray matter of the brain, and know just where the memory cells are, and where lie the coils of imagination and ideality. b. gen. Any one of a number of small compartments or niches into which a larger structure is divided, as a compartment of a dovecote, a section of a drawer or cabinet, a pigeonhole, etc. ΘΚΠ the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > [noun] > an enclosed space or place > compartment or chamber chambera1398 cellulea1400 partition1465 traversea1500 cell1577 concameration1638 apartment1679 thecaa1680 partitionment1851 compartment1866 cube1937 cubicle1938 1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 169 For the tame Pigions..they make..certayne hollowe roomes, and celles for them. 1661 J. Ray Let. 14 Sept. in Corr. (1848) 4 [The box] must have almost infinite cells and divisions to contain all the varieties of seeds and fruits. 1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 74 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. Cells, resembling those of Cabinets for Rarities. 1780 J. Walters Poems 30 Who in these walls, with jewels rare beset, Built the first cell of yon proud cabinet. 1859 W. C. Bryant Lett. Traveller 2nd Ser. 142 This wall..is pierced with five rows of cells or niches, one above the other, into which the coffins are shoved endwise. 1924 Entomologist's Rec. (verso rear cover) Lift-off glazed tops. Camphor cells. Lined cork or peat. 40-drawer, 12/6 per drawer. 20-drawer, 1/- per drawer. 1996 Early Amer. Life (Nexis) Feb. 8 For transplanting seedlings, there are many types of small peat pots, fiber pots,..or trays divided into cells. 8. Any one of the typically hexagonal wax compartments in a honeycomb. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > superfamily Apoidea (bees) > honeycomb > cell in cella1398 room1579 cabin1611 working hole1735 pollen cell1888 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 288 Such wonyng places [sc. of bees] and celles ben alle sexe cornered. a1425 (a1349) R. Rolle Meditations on Passion (Uppsala) (1917) 44 Also, swete Ihesu, þi bodi is lyke to an hony combe, ffor it is eche way fulle of cellis, and eche celle fulle of hony. 1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 175^v Theyr coames that they make are wrought full of holes, whiche holes..are theyr celles..: these celles they doo all fyll with Hony. 1609 C. Butler Feminine Monarchie iv. sig. D6^v This combe containeth about six celles of the bignes & fashion of the Bees cells. 1715 I. Watts Divine Songs 29 How skilfully she builds her Cell! How neat she spreads the Wax. 1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VIII. 70 The cells of the bees are perfect hexagons. 1816 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. (1818) II. xix. 147 After her great laying of male eggs in..May she [sc. the queen bee] oviposits in the royal cells. 1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 97 A bee-keeper would cut out the cells of drones. 1908 Times 24 Apr. 17/3 The term ‘foundation’ refers to thin sheets of wax uniformly impressed with exact reproductions of the bases of the cells which bees construct. 1960 D. C. Braungart & R. Buddeke Introd. Animal Biol. (ed. 5) xii. 194 When..pollen is packed in the..cells in the combs some honey is mixed with it. This mixture in the cells of the combs is frequently called ‘bee bread’ and will keep indefinitely. 2004 Backwoods Home Mag. July–Aug. 24/1 As each cell in the honeycomb is filled, the bees seal it with beeswax. 9. a. Biology. Any of various larger chambers in the structure of a tissue or organism, typically with known functions. Now largely disused, except in Botany when describing the locules of an ovary or the thecae of an anther. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > indentation or cavity > [noun] > depression or cavity pita1275 holec1300 cella1398 den1398 follicle?a1425 purse?a1425 pocketa1450 fossac1475 cystis1543 trench1565 conceptory1576 vesike1577 vesicle1578 vault1594 socket1601 bladderet1615 cistern1615 cavern1626 ventricle1641 bladder1661 antrum1684 conceptaculum1691 capsule1693 cellule1694 loculus1694 sinus1704 vesicula1705 vesica1706 fosse1710 pouch1712 cyst1721 air chamber1725 fossula1733 alveole1739 sac1741 sacculus1749 locule1751 compartment1772 air cell1774 fossule1803 umbilicus1811 conceptacle1819 cœlia1820 utricle1822 air sac1835 saccule1836 ampulla1845 vacuole1853 scrobicule1880 faveolus1882 the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > [noun] > an enclosed space or place > compartment or chamber > having a function cella1398 clean room1961 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. xcix. 991 Þe greynes [of pomegranates] beþ y-ordeyned in here owne celles by passyng wonder craft of kynde. ?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 67 Þogh it [sc. the matrice] haue noght but two..open holowenesses..neuerþelatter it haþ eche of hem þrefoldely cellis and one in þe myddel, so þat (after Mundyne) þere ben founden in it 7 receptacles. 1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. xxiii. 174 After them certayne hollow little huskes or Celles. 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 139 They [sc. bitches] bring forth many at a time sometime fiue, seuen, nine, or twelue; for so many celles hath the female in her wombe. 1676 J. Beaumont Let. 7 Apr. in H. Oldenburg Corr. (1986) XII. 244 The stone call'd Cornu Ammonis, shapt like a Ramms horne, is very frequent in this clay... Most of ye lesser stones..appeare somewhat hollow at ye broad end, wth cells comming downe inwardly from ye toppe of ye stone, resembling those in ye flowers of corrall, wch terminate in branches. 1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Coniferous In which Cone are many Seeds, and when they are ripe the several Cells or Partitions in the Cone gape or open, and the Seed drops out. 1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) I. 320 Capsule roundish, with as many cells as there are styles. 1845 J. Lindley School Bot. (1858) i. 16 The interior of the ovary is called the cell. 1851 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca i. 39 Horizontal sections exhibit a cellular net-work, with here and there a dark cell, which is empty. 1887 Bot. Gaz. 17 66 The anther cells are widely separated; one stands vertically, facing the corresponding cell of the other stamen. 1918 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 45 404 Stamens two, the anthers one-celled with vestiges of a second cell. 1944 Amer. Midland Naturalist 31 751 Before fertilization occurs, the ovule occupies but a small fraction of the cell, but, as the fruit matures, most of the cavity is filled. 1991 A. D. Bell Plant Form (1993) i. 146/3 Each such carpel contains a cavity, the ovary (or ‘cell’) into which develop one or more ovules each borne on a stalk. b. Any of various pores, cavities, or (typically small, air-filled) chambers in the structure of tissues, natural mineral substances, or (now often) man-made materials. In earliest use describing what is now understood to be sense 15a, which appeared to be empty spaces when examined by Hooke and Grew under low-resolution microscopes. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > minerals > mineral structure or appearance > [noun] > cavity cell1665 negative crystal1831 glass-cavity1857 the world > life > biology > substance > [noun] > interstices in cell1665 areola1848 the world > life > biology > substance > cell > [noun] cell1665 macrogametocyte1903 1665 R. Hooke Micrographia xviii. 112 These pores, or cells [in cork] were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of one continued long Pore. 1673 N. Grew Idea Phytol. Hist. ii. iii. 65 The Microscope..confirms that these pores are all, in a manner, spherical, and this part..an infinite Mass of little Cells or fixed Bubles. 1797 R. Towson Trav. in Hungary 289 It is what the Germans call hardened clay, but cellular; the cells in some places are partly filled up with a fibrous substance like decomposed pumice. 1845 C. Darwin Jrnl. (ed. 2) xxi. 493 The central part is coarsely cellular, the cells decreasing in size towards the exterior;..the outside crust of finely cellular lava. 1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. ii. i. 41 Cellular or areolar tissue is composed of numerous lamellæ, which by their interlacement intercept a number of open spaces termed cells. 1901 Lancet 28 Dec. 1793/1 The rarity of heart tubercles is explained by the scarcity of cells or cavities (hollow spaces) between the muscular fibres of the heart. 1939 C. W. Dunham Theory & Pract. Reinforced Concrete 317 In this structure, the 12-in. slabs between the cells, and the parapets, were poured after the forms for the cells were removed. 1980 Polymer Testing 1 283 An important feature of cellular plastics is that the cells or cavities of which they are composed may be interconnecting (open cells) or non-connecting (closed cells). 1995 Jrnl. Volcanol. & Geothermal Res. 68 261/1 Late-stage vesicles coalesce by puncturing through triangular glass filaments or thin..membranes separating adjacent cells. 10. a. The metal socket in which the lens of an optical instrument such as a microscope or telescope is mounted. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > lens > [noun] > socket for mounting lenses cell1704 1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Microscope Object-Glasses..fix'd in Brass Cells ready to screw on. 1785 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 75 44 Unscrewing the object-glass or speculum a little in its cell. 1889 G. M. Hopkins Exper. Sci. (1893) xiv. 309 The [telescope] lens is retained in its cell by a flat strip..of brass which is sprung into the cell and pushed down against the lens. The cell is fastened to the tube by common wood-screws. 1924 Jrnl. Sci. Instruments 1 229 The portion of the front lens usually employed for mounting it into a metal cell is used for transmitting light to the object. 2005 A. Chapman England's Leonardo iv. 59 Each lens would be mounted in a turned wooden or metal cell and secured at their correct operational distances by a cardboard tube. b. A compartment within a scientific apparatus, esp. one designed to hold a sample (typically of fluid) while it is investigated, tested, etc. Cf. sense 13. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > trial, test, or testing > [noun] > a sample > container for cell1863 1863 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 152 607 I sometimes employ a small cell with parallel faces of quartz, sometimes a wedge-shaped vessel... The cell being filled with the solvent, a minute quantity of the substance is introduced, and the progress of the absorption is watched as the substance gradually dissolves. 1900 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 158 A 10 per cent. solution of carbamide in a cell 15 mm. in thickness transmits all rays to λ 2140. 1973 D. H. Williams & I. Fleming Spectrosc. Methods in Org. Chem. (ed. 2) i. 2 A matched cell containing pure solvent is also prepared, and each cell is placed in the appropriate place in the spectrometer. 2005 Spectrochimica Acta B 60 140/2 The mixing of the sample and reductant takes place at the interface of the two glass spikes located roughly one-third from the top of the reaction cell. c. A cavity gouged out, or a small chamber made on or mounted on to a microscope slide to contain an object for examination in a suitable medium. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > magnification or magnifying instruments > [noun] > microscope > slides > part of sunk cell1862 cell1870 1870 J. H. Martin Microsc. Objects Figured & Described 105 The better methods of preparation are:—to cut a thin section after maceration in hydrochloric acid diluted with two parts water, then to mount in a cell with a fluid composed of acetic acid 1 part, water 2 parts. 1881 W. B. Carpenter Microscope (ed. 6) v. 216 Where large shallow cells with flat bottoms are required (as for mounting Zoophytes, small Medusæ, etc.). 1918 A. C. Stokes Aquatic Microsc. i. 33 This is done by making a ring of cement on the slip, thus enclosing a circular space called a cell, which can be made of any depth by applying more after the first application has dried. 1974 N. Z. Jrnl. Zool. 1 383 The rest of the beetle was pulled apart..and mounted on a cell slide or placed in glycerol. 2001 A. J. Bard & M. V. Mirkin Scanning Electron Microsc. 61 In some cases, the glass or plastic tube is eliminated by using just epoxy glue to form the cell in the microscope slide. 11. The cup-like cavity occupied by an individual polyp in some colonial invertebrates, esp. cnidarians and bryozoans. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > colony or compound organism > [noun] > structure of colony > cup in which polyp is lodged cell1712 calicle1848 the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Polyzoa > [noun] > member of > cup-like cavity occupied by polyp cell1712 1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs I. 96/2 The Extremities, or Ends of the [coral] Branches, are soft, and also produce little Balls,..divided commonly into six Cells [Fr. cellules]. 1847 W. B. Carpenter Zool.: Systematic Acct. II. §1053 This horny tube is enlarged at certain points into sheaths or cells for the protection of the Polypes; within these the individuals can retract themselves. 1859 C. Kingsley Glaucus (ed. 4) 73 Each polype cell is edged with whip-like spines. 1881 Science 22 Oct. 506/1 Zoœcium or cell.—‘The chamber in which the Polypide is lodged’. 1960 Jrnl. Paleontol. 34 458/1 The colony is generally irregularly botryoidal in shape and in life composed of ellipsoidal or ‘pear-shaped’ cells. †12. Geology. Probably: a chamber-like geological structure constituting (part of) the conduit of a fumarole. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ 1727 A. Hamilton New Acct. E. Indies II. liv. 287 Wells of Fire, that continually burn in their own Cells. 13. Originally: a container for an electrochemical system for generating electricity. Later chiefly: the container and the electrochemical system it houses; the basic unit of a battery. Also: a half-cell of a galvanic cell. Cf. sense 10b.The first systems of this type consisted either of a metallic anode and cathode within an electrolyte (the voltaic cell) or of a system of two electrodes, each in a separate electrolyte between which only the flow of ions is possible (the galvanic cell). A set or stack of electrode pairs in an electrolyte (a voltaic pile) was also originally designated a cell. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > galvanism, voltaism > [noun] > voltaic cell cell1801 standard cell1864 Bunsen cell1870 Clark cell1884 concentration cell1888 cadmium cell1893 1801 H. Davy in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 91 402 When the apparatus is used, these cells are filled, in the Galvanic order, with different solutions, according to the class of the combination. 1828 Oxf. Cycl. III. 521 The plates [in Children's battery] are..immersed in the cells of a trough. 1848 C. V. Walker Man. Electr. 329 A single cell of this battery is represented in fig. 142. It consists essentially of a copper cell A, etc. 1882 H. Watts Dict. Chem. II. 428 The two liquids in each cell being separated by a porous diaphragm. 1928 Times 24 Feb. 8/1 Standard batteries are made up of cells ³/ ₄in. in diameter by 2¹/ ₈in. in height. 1974 M. Clifford Encycl. Home Wiring & Electr. iii.44 The mercury cell was one of the earliest efforts to decrease cell size while supplying required current without an excessive loss of battery voltage. 2005 Jrnl. Power Sources 146 785/2 With uniform cells of matching capacities, the performance of the pack is maximized. 14. Any one of a number of spaces into which a surface is divided by linear partitions: spec. a. Architecture. Any one of the spaces between the ribs of a vaulted roof. ΚΠ 1830 W. Whewell Archit. Notes German Churches 25 A roof consisting of six cells, which may be called, therefore, sexpartite. 1835 R. Willis Remarks Archit. Middle Ages vii. 78 note Such cells are termed Welsh vaulting cells. 1899 C. H. Moore Devel. & Char. Gothic Archit. (ed. 2) iii. 64 The oblong form of the compartment gives great inequality in the spans of the arches, but the ends of the cells of the vault..are brought to a common level in a curious manner. 1904 W. R. Lethaby Mediæval Art vii. 155 An additional transverse rib was put at the intersection of the diagonal ribs, and the cells of the vault were modified accordingly. 1962 P. Frankl Gothic Archit. i. iii. 135 The high position of the windows makes the lighting of the cells of the vault unusually complicated. 1998 R. G. Calkins Medieval Archit. in Western Europe xiii. 190 The galleries had windows placed high in their exterior walls under awkward, upturned outer cells. b. Entomology. Any of the spaces between the nerves of the wings of insects. ΚΠ 1836 W. E. Shuckard tr. H. Burmeister Man. Entomol. 97 The spaces enclosed by these veins are called areolets (areolæ), or cells [Ger. Zellen] (cellulæ, Jurine);..those lying close to the marginal rib are..Jurine's, cellulæ radiales; those succeeding to them,..cellulæ cubitales of Jurine. 1836 W. E. Shuckard tr. H. Burmeister Man. Entomol. (Descriptions of Plates) 644 Wing of a bee a, Marginal vein..d, Marginal cell. e e, Cubital cells. 1895 J. H. Comstock & A. B. Comstock Man. Study Insects 421 In the figures of wings in this chapter both the veins and the cells are numbered. 1944 R. Matheson Entomol. for Introd. Courses iii. 58 Cells completely surrounded by veins are called closed-cells; those that extended to the margin of the wing are called open cells. 1970 Florida Entomologist 53 97 These two species are..quite set apart from B. nana, however, in the presence of a small but complete second radial cell and of coarse microtrichia in the wing. 2004 Cretaceous Res. 25 809/1 Forewing with Rs [= radial sector] reaching margin of wing; cell r closed. 15. Biology. a. The fundamental, usually microscopic, structural and functional unit of all living organisms, which consists of a small quantity of protoplasm enclosed within a membrane, typically contains a nucleus or nucleoid and other organelles and internal compartments, and is capable of utilizing energy, synthesizing proteins and other biomolecules, and (usually) replicating itself.Although Robert Hooke, Nehemiah Grew and other writers used the word for microscopic cavities found in plant tissues (see quot. 1673 at sense 9b), the modern understanding of the cell is usually taken to begin in the early 19th cent. with the work of J. B. Purkinje and other (mainly French and German) botanists and anatomists, and is particularly associated with M. J. Schleiden (in plants) ( Arch. f. Anat., Physiol. u. wissensch. Med. (1838) 137) and T. Schwann (in animals) ( Mikroskop. Untersuchungen (1839)). ΚΠ 1839 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 129 358 He [sc. Theodor Schwann] has shown not only that animal tissues in general, like those of plants, are reducible to modifications of vesicles, or as he calls them ‘cells’,—but that the mode of origin of the vesicles or ‘cells’ is essentially the same in animals as Schleiden had discovered it to be in plants. 1851 W. B. Carpenter Man. Physiol. (ed. 2) 7 We shall hereafter see that a cell, or closed vesicle, formed of a membranous wall, and containing fluid, may be regarded as the simplest form of a living body. 1871 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) II. xii. 264 The yeast-plant..is an assemblage of living cells. 1892 E. R. Lankester tr. E. Haeckel Hist. Creation (ed. 4) II. 49 There soon arise organized communities of cells, and out of these, tissues. 1920 Lancet 25 Dec. 1295/2 The cell picture of sections made of living tissues is quite different from that shown when dead cells are examined. 1954 I. Asimov Chemicals of Life iii. 38 The cell has little mitochondria which hold enzymes arranged in order. 1986 New Phytologist 102 602 Virtually all the cells contained numerous chloroplasts. 2007 Daily Tel. 22 Jan. 15/8 The gene produces an enzyme, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which helps determine the rate at which cells divide. b. With distinguishing word denoting a particular type of cell or the tissue or organism from which a cell is derived.accessory, alpha, Aschoff cell, etc.: see the first element. ΚΠ 1839 W. Francis tr. F. J. F. Meyen Rep. Progress Veg. Physiol. 17 M. Morren is..of opinion, that these short pleurenchymatous cells are of the same origin and purport as the other cells, and are produced as it were from spheroid cells, the so-called merenchyma. 1855 A. Bain Senses & Intellect Introd. ii. 16 The countless millions of nerve cells. 1907 B. P. Colton Physiol. iii. 71 The blood is composed of a clear liquid, the plasma, and the blood cells, or corpuscles. 1937 Life 13 Sept. 69/3 In fruit-fly germ cells Geneticist Morgan found granules arranged in four different ways like strings of beads. 1964 E. J. H. Corner in B. Dixon From Creation to Chaos (1993) 41 There will be time enough to learn about the ocean, where the plant-cell evolved, and there will probably be time enough to learn about the seashore where this cell grew into the plant form. 2006 Family Circle Nov. 96/2 A sample of cervical cells is smeared on to a slide for examination. 16. Each of a number of identical volumes into which space or a crystal is notionally divided; spec. = unit cell n. at unit n. and adj. Compounds 2, or primitive cell n. at primitive n. and adj. Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > crystallography (general) > crystal (general) > crystals (other miscellaneous) > [noun] > cells cell1894 1894 Ld. Kelvin in Proc. Royal Soc. 55 1 The homogeneous division of any volume of space means the dividing of it into equal and similar parts, or cells, as I shall call them, all sameways oriented... An interesting application of this problem is to find for a crystal..a homogeneous arrangement of partitional interfaces such that each cell contains all the atoms of one molecule. 1915 W. H. Bragg & W. L. Bragg X-Rays & Crystal Structure vii. 111 Whatever class of symmetry the crystal belongs to, this enables us to measure up an elementary cell of its structure. 1931 Zeitschr. f. Kristallogr. 79 501 The cell chosen is..not necessarily the primitive, i.e. smallest cell, as such a cell would often demand a description in oblique and inconvenient axes. 1966 C. R. Tottle Sci. Engin. Materials iii. 50 Atoms in a simple cubic cell occupy 52% of the available space, those in the diamond structure 34%. 1999 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96 8332/1 In this transformation..the unit cell of the crystal undergoes a bifurcation into different, lower symmetry unit cells. 17. (a) A region of fluid or gas that can be treated as a unit with respect to its circulation; esp. = convection cell n. at convection n. Additions. (b) Meteorology. An area of localized convective activity, esp. such an area within a storm (also more fully storm cell). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > liquid > [noun] > a quantity of > small > unit of circulation cell1916 1916 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 32 529 The layer rapidly resolves itself into a number of cells, the motion being an ascension in the middle of a cell and a descension at the common boundary between a cell and its neighbours. 1934 D. Brunt Physical & Dynamical Meteorol. xii. 215 The Bénard cell is perhaps the clearest illustration of the possibility of generating vorticity in a fluid in which pressure is not a function of density alone. 1948 Jrnl. Meteorol. 5 72/1 A thunderstorm is most often composed of several regions of convective action which are herein termed ‘thunderstorm cells’. 1982 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 18 Oct. 27/2 This will enable pilots to better gauge the height of storm cells and the weather at specific altitudes. 2007 Dynam. Atmospheres & Oceans 43 41 There exist two different states of the Hadley cell over the eastern Pacific. 18. a. Each of the locations in a statistical table or tabular display which may be occupied by a single datum, statistic, etc. Also more generally: a location in a matrix-like diagram. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > groups or arrangements of data > statistical table > location within cell1923 1923 R. Pearl Introd. Med. Biometry & Statistics iv. 78 There are 8 × 12 = 96 elemental cells in this table. 1946 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 66 Figures were..worked out to make a fourfold contingency table... The first cell of each table contained the number of cases in which the prayer..was regarded as familiar. 1972 Sci. Amer. May 115/1 It is easy to prove that nine kings, eight bishops or eight rooks are needed to attack all vacant cells on a standard chessboard. 2007 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 17 Jan. 3 To correct the resultant error you are forced to spend what feels like hours re-writing a long list of spreadsheet cell formulae. b. Computing. An identifiable or addressable unit of memory or data storage; esp. one with a capacity of one bit or one word. Cf. sense 7b. ΘΚΠ society > computing and information technology > hardware > [noun] > primary storage or main memory > areas or blocks memory cell1892 storage location1949 cell1950 1950 Math. Tables & Other Aids Computation 4 32 Each binary digit of a 30-digit word, for example, is represented by a single elemental magnetized area, or ‘cell’, in each of 30 separate tracks. 1960 M. G. Say et al. Analogue & Digital Computers viii. 215 The most important feature of a store in a digital computer is..the mechanism by which a particular digit cell may be selected in order to record a new digit or to read the existing one. 1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing x. 133 A computer memory with addressable cells or positions is analogous to a mail sorter with pigeon-holes. 2006 Internat. Herald Tribune (Nexis) 12 Dec. 17 That has made it possible to build tiny memory cells that can store digital 1's and 0's by means of electricity rather than light. 19. A small group of people (occasionally a single person) working within a larger organization as a nucleus of political, esp. revolutionary, activity; (also) the headquarters of such a group. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > a party > [noun] > small nucleus cell1925 1924 Workers' Weekly 1 Aug. 8/1 Factory groups are..the basic units of the Party, the fundamental cells out of which the whole organism has to be built.] 1925 Glasgow Herald 25 Apr. 10 They were Communists and were carrying membership cards of Communist cells. 1931 Morning Post 6 Aug. 12/4 The Viennese police have discovered a Communist ‘cell’ in..a district of the city. 1939 G. B. Shaw Geneva i. 20 My butler..tells me that my footman..is a cell... A communist cell. Like a bee in a hive. Planted on me by the Communists to make their dreadful propaganda in my household! 1958 L. A. G. Strong Treason in Egg v. 93 What if the thing was organised like an underground cell in war-time, when each member of the resistance knew only his own little bit of the chain of activity. 1995 T. Clancy Op-Center lxxviii. 348 I have received incontrovertible evidence that a cell of South Korean soldiers..was behind today's bombing. 2000 Newsweek 1 Jan. 12/2 Various terrorist groups or ‘cells’ around the world declare allegiance to bin Laden. 20. A photovoltaic device; spec. = solar cell n. at solar adj. and n.¹ Compounds 3. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > voltage > photovoltaics > [noun] > photocell photoelectric cell1890 photoscope1890 photocell1891 rectifier cell1906 photronic1932 solar battery1954 cell1955 solar cell1955 1955 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 26 Aug. 10/1 The cells on exhibit run electric motors... And they use only a single electric lamp as a light source. 1965 Science 26 Mar. 1560/1 The cells are capable of an output of 150 watts in good weather. 2000 M. A. Green Power to People i. 8 When sunlight falls on the cell, an electrical output is generated..allowing these cells to be used as a battery that can..last as long as the sun shines. 21. The local area covered by one of the short-range radio stations in a mobile phone system. Cf. cellular adj. 6. ΘΚΠ society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > area covered in cellular system cell1977 1977 Business Week 28 Mar. i34/1 The Chicago test involves mobile units in vehicles utilizing only the largest, eight-mile cell size. 1988 Independent 23 Aug. 21 Cellular radio gets its name from the structure of the network—calls are made in one area or ‘cell’ through the cell's base station into the public network. 2005 P. Metcalfe & R. Metcalfe Excel Senior High School: Engin. Stud. (ed. 2) v. 299 Each cell is theoretically a hexagonal region as this allows the geometric fitting of adjacent regions into a continuous mosaic. 22. Telecommunications and Computing. In some modes of data communication, esp. asynchronous transfer mode: an information packet of fixed size (48 bytes of content and 5 bytes of header). ΚΠ 1987 Computer Networks & ISDN Syst. 14 340/1 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a promising new multiplexing and switching concept based on asynchronous ‘on demand’ use of short fixed size time slots, called cells. 1995 Data Communic. Internat. Oct. 35/1 Sound is converted into digital data, packaged into the 44 bytes of payload in a 53-byte ATM cell, and sent to the recipient. 2004 Telecom Asia (Nexis) 1 Feb. 28 Cells have no error correction data or sequence controls, and they carry a virtual path or channel number rather than a full address. Compounds C1. General attributive (chiefly in senses 1 and 4). cell door n. ΚΠ a1425 St. Anthony l. 45 in Anglia (1881) 4 121 (MED) Many men..come be dysyre to sene hym..be nyghtys-tyme abydyng at hys celle dore. 1671 E. Stillingfleet Disc. Idolatry iv. 267 A Monk could not knock at his Cell door, but he asked the Devil, what he did there in the Wilderness? 1786 S. Told Acct. Life (new ed.) 161 The cell doors were then locked and bolted upon us. 1853 C. Kingsley Hypatia II. vii. 171 At last his cell-door grated on its hinges. 1968 N. Cruz & J. Buckingham Run Baby Run ix. 89 ‘Okay, punk,’ the turnkey said as he closed the cell door, ‘Why don't you get up and jitterbug for us now?’ 2001 J. T. Hallinan Going up River xvii. 208 These therapists..will speak to troubled inmates..through a slit..that runs the length of each cell door. cell-grating n. ΚΠ 1791 J. Bentham Panopticon i. 55 Postscript The other [party] immediately within the Cell-grating. 1876 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Tom Sawyer xxiii. 183 The boys did as they had often done before—went to the cell grating and gave Potter some tobacco and matches. 1956 Q. Film, Radio & Television 11 147 They then stand aside for Francis to look through a cell grating. 2005 US Fed News (Nexis) 21 Oct. [In building the prison] their biggest challenge..was lifting the 2-ton iron cell gratings into place. C2. a. General attributive (in sense 15a), as cell activity, cell adhesion, cell aggregate, cell ancestor, cell debris, cell degradation, cell evolution, cell fibre, cell filament, cell formation, cell graft, cell genesis, cell inclusion, cell infiltration, cell pigment, cell population, cell suspension, etc.Some of the more established compounds of this type are treated separately. ΚΠ 1839 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 129 324 Schwann has suggested that the divisions in question in the ovum of the Frog, may, perhaps, be reducible to a ‘cell’-formation. 1842 J. Paget Rep. Chief Results Obtained by Microscope 8 When the nuclei lie on the surface of a flattened cell-fibre, they have a tendency to send off lateral branches. 1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. IV. 117/1 The only true black cell-pigment. 1850 J. A. Orr Princ. Surg. iii. ix. 341 The presence of blood in substance does not prevent the occurrence of cell evolution and vascularization. 1859 W. D. Moore tr. J. L. C. Schroeder van der Kolk On Minute Struct. & Functions Spinal Cord i. 16 It is very usual to see one or two of the cell filaments [Du. celdraden] running outwards into bundle of the anterior or posterior nerve-roots. 1892 Lancet 24 Dec. 1443/1 Certain other cell inclusions had been described by some observers abroad and by Dr. Ruffer and Mr. Walker in this country. 1907 Practitioner Jan. 19 The membranes and perivascular spaces showed some cell-infiltration. 1912 Times 5 Sept. 6/3 Life is now embodied in the cell, and every living being evolved from this will itself be either a cell or a cell-aggregate. 1929 Lancet 26 Oct. 886/1 During the first three years of its propagation by cell grafts the fibrosarcoma grew slowly. 1932 Times 25 Apr. 7/4 Schwann started from Schleiden's theory of cell-genesis which he expanded and adopted. 1938 F. G. Benedict Vital Energetics 209 The cell activity is controlled in large part by the supply of available oxygen and nutriment. 1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) viii. 155 In the early stages of healing they removed the cell debris, while in the later stages they were transmuted either into fibroblasts, into corneal fibre cells (keratoblasts) or possibly actually into corneal corpuscles. 1954 Biol. Bull. 107 141 Although no role of calcium in cell adhesion is indicated by the effect of calcium deficiency, one might be detected by the effects of calcium excess. 1961 Amer. Naturalist 95 255 A means of clarifying the role and behavior of sex chromosomes in the normal and malignant cell population. 1963 R. W. Van Norman Exper. Biol. xvi. 214 Obviously the number of cells per 5 ml is not uniform if the cell suspension in a 500-ml flask is more concentrated at the bottom than at the top. 1974 Radiation Res. 59 645 The ability of unirradiated cell grafts to repopulate irradiated tissues. 1982 Internat. Jrnl. Cancer 15 181 It is suggested that the endodermal carcinoma cells..as well as the mesenchymal and trophoblastic structures may have a common cell ancestor. 1991 R. Gallo Virus Hunting viii. 152 Perhaps the low rate of detection of RT we had found could have been due to cell degradation from samples being killed by a cytopathic virus. 1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) ii. 118/1 They lack nearly every other cell inclusion characteristic of eukaryotes; they have no endoplasmic reticula, Golgi bodies, mitochondria, chromosomes, or centrioles. 2004 Current Opinion in Plant Biol. 7 166/2 The life cycle of mosses begins with the germination of a haploid spore and the subsequent growth of a branched cell filament, the protonema. b. (a) cell boundary n. ΚΠ 1848 W. Carpenter in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1847 131 Portion of the same layer, in which the cell-boundaries are obliterated. 1900 Biol. Bull. 1 196 The mass of protoplasm surrounding each nucleus is small, and the cell boundaries are very indistinct. 2002 Ann. Bot. 89 131/1 ‘Cell packet’ is simply a convenient item of histological observation wherever there are cells that are the product of a few cycles of division within a common cell boundary. cell cavity n. ΚΠ 1845 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 10 433 The cell-cavity seems destined chiefly to contain the secreted fluid until ready to be discharged. 1907 F. E. Clements Plant Physiol. & Ecol. vii. 157 The cuticle thus formed sometimes becomes very thick, filling half or more of the cell cavity. 2004 Forest Ecol. & Managem. 195 101/2 The latewood tracheids are those in which the width of their common wall in the radial direction is equal or greater than the width of either cell cavity. cell cleavage n. ΚΠ 1859 Brit. & Foreign Medico-chirurg. Rev. 24 301 This mode of increase is stated [by Virchow], however, to be infrequent; the cell-cleavage is, in all forms, the most common manner of growth. 1960 E. D. P. De Robertis Gen. Cytol. (ed. 3) xii. 339 The mechanism of cell cleavage is certainly different in animal cells than in plant cells. 2007 Trends Cell Biol. 17 74 (table) Delayed cell cleavage during preimplantation development. cell contents n. ΚΠ 1842 London & Edinb. Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Apr. 356 Whether the appearance is to be considered as analogous to that irregular form of nucleus and cell-contents characteristic of certain forms of tubercle, I do not know. 1912 J. R. Ainsworth-Davis tr. W. F. Bruck Plant Dis. vi. 101 The white, copiously branched mycelium..penetrates into the interior of the vine leaves, completely absorbing the cell contents. 2002 New Phytologist 156 424/1 Mammalian cells undergoing necrosis are characterized by cell swelling, cell lysis and by the leakage of cell contents. cell culture n. ΚΠ 1874 Amer. Naturalist 8 697 Their method of cell-culture..is applicable not only to the smaller fungi but to many other plants. 1959 J. A. V. Butler Inside Living Cell xix. 151 Cell cultures continue to grow..in artificial media for many generations, long after the animal from which the cells were obtained has died. 2003 New Scientist 11 Jan. 51 (advt.) You'll be supervising the cell culture of hybridoma cells and the preparation of harvests for the purification team. cell death n. ΚΠ 1867 J. M. Scudder Princ. Med. 250 It is still possible in some cases for this cell-death to be arrested. 1901 Science 29 Mar. 490/2 Hypertrophic degeneration or indirect cell death preceded by growth and structural change of the cell. 2005 Men's Health (U.K. ed.) June 23/2 The drug prevents cell death after a heart attack, largely by protecting the ticker against damaging proteins. cell division n. ΚΠ 1846 A. Henfrey tr. C. Nägeli in Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 220 The lines..are the septa, by which the cell-division is effected [Ger. durch welche sich die Zellen theilen]. a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 971 This is effected by the rare kind of cell-division which is called meiosis or reduction-division, in which the number of chromosomes is reduced by a half. 2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Jan. 79/1 Normal human cells grown in a test tube simply stop dividing after a specific number of cell divisions. cell elongation n. ΚΠ 1849 Brit. & Foreign Medico-chirurg. Rev. 4 187 Fibres also may be formed..by cell elongation or division. 1897 Bot. Gaz. 23 163 It is a region of cell elongation rather than of cell division. 1992 W. T. Parsons & E. G. Cuthbertson Noxious Weeds Austral. 659 (table) Propachlor... A root-absorbed anilide compound..which inhibits cell elongation and protein synthesis. cell form n. ΚΠ 1821 tr. A. P. de Candolle & K. Sprengel Elements Philos. Plants iv. 174 These primitive forms may be reduced to three, the cell-form [Ger. Zellform], the tube-form, and the spiral form. 1910 Geogr. Jrnl. 37 366 Other genera have kept the cell-form almost as in Dinophysis, but the membranes are converted into swimming apparatus. 2007 Virus Res. 125 36 (caption) The cell forms most frequently observed at a given time..were examined at high magnification. cell fusion n. [after German Zellfusion (1869 in the passage translated in quot. 1877)] ΚΠ 1877 A. W. Bennett tr. O. W. Thomé Text-bk. Struct. & Physiol. Bot. ii. 37 The union of cells into tissues and cell-fusions [Ger. Zellfusionen] is permanent, and is combined with a limitation in various ways of the functions of the separate cells. 1967 Times 16 Dec. 7/3 My own use of the technique of cell fusion, for example, is in the field of cancer produced by viruses. 2004 Nature 15 July p. xi/2 The pendulum has swung to cell fusion, rather than transdifferentiation, as an explanation for apparent cell-fate switching. † cell-germ n. Obsolete ΚΠ 1842 Lancet 26 Nov. 306/1 The cytoblastema..becomes converted into granules, which are termed cell-germs or cytoblasts. 1890 Philos. Trans. 1889 (Royal Soc.) B. 180 206 A medulla developed from some invisible cell-germ has expanded to more than an inch in diameter. cell growth n. ΚΠ 1844 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 102 Another portion [of the tissue] is the result of cell-growth. 1897 Science 28 May 829/2 Removal of obstacles to growth..may be the explanation of all pathological cell-growths. 2006 Mother & Baby Aug. 32/1 Folic acid is essential for your baby's cell growth, and it reduces the risk of your baby developing neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, by 70%. cell killing n. ΚΠ 1958 Science 19 Dec. 1548/2 The intensity effect in spermatogonia might have been due to secondary causes—that is, selection as a result of cell killing or other interference with the dynamics of the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium. 1993 S. Milligan & A. Clare Depression & how to survive It (1994) iv. 99 The immune system is divided into the so-called humoral system..and a cell-mediated system which responds by direct cell killing—cytoxicity—as well as by the production of substances including interferon. cell life n. ΚΠ 1843 W. B. Carpenter Princ. Human Physiol. (new ed.) xi. 451 The doctrine of cell-life is as true, therefore, when applied to animal as to vegetable nutrition. 1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. ii. 45 This vegetative phase of cell life is frequently referred to as the ‘resting’ period or interkinesis. 2006 BioEssays 28 253 Mitochondria are essential for maintaining cell life but they also play a role in regulating cell death. cell mass n. [after German Zellenmasse (1846 in the passage translated in quot. 1847)] ΚΠ 1847 A. Henfrey tr. K. Müller in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 19 249 The four spores are formed at the same time, and certainly not..by the mechanical division of the cell-mass into four parts by septa. 1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) i. 1 In man and other multicellular organisms the environment is twofold: one which surrounds the body or cell-mass..and one which surrounds each individual cell. 2006 Science 28 Apr. 516/3 To make ES [= embryonic stem] cell lines, scientists next isolate the group of cells called the inner cell mass from week-old cloned embryos and coax them to grow in culture dishes. cell motility n. ΚΠ 1916 A. J. Carlson Control of Hunger in Health & Dis. i. 5 This is in all probability not the mechanism that induces increased cell motility in state of cell hunger. 1974 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 124/2 They [sc. microtubules] appear to be involved in the production of certain types of cell motility. 2007 EMBO Jrnl. 26 1221 Hypoxia is a microenvironmental stress in wounded skin, where it supports wound healing by promoting cell motility. cell multiplication n. ΚΠ 1844 Brit. & Foreign Med. Rev. 18 107 They are rapidly undergoing the process of cell-multiplication. 1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) viii. 155 The repair of the severed axons of nerves cannot be due to cell multiplication as the axon is the process of a nerve cell which cannot divide in any case. 2007 Bioorganic & Medicinal Chem. 15 2386/1 The complete process of cell multiplication is mediated by various enzymes. cell nutrient n. ΚΠ 1911 Amer. Breeders Assoc. Rep. Meeting 1909 6 438 Some cytologists and a noted embryologist thought that the cytoplasm (which we consider the media, or cell nutrient)..might account for segregation. 2007 Biomaterials 28 663/1 The medium was changed 2-3 times a week to maintain an adequate supply of cell nutrients. cell nutrition n. ΚΠ 1852 H. Ancell Treat. Tuberculosis viii. 735 Some of these measures have a more direct agency on cell nutrition. 1907 Lancet 2 Feb. 376/2 It is certain that ferments play an important part in cell nutrition. 2003 Spine Jrnl. 5 128/1 Decreased end plate permeability has been hypothesized as an important mechanism of disc degeneration by restricting cell nutrition. cell proliferation n. ΚΠ 1860 F. Chance tr. R. Virchow Cellular Pathol. iii. 66 When cerebral matter forms in the ovary, it does not arise out of pre-existing cerebral matter, nor through any act of simple cell-proliferation [Ger. Wucherung]. 1914 Times 10 Apr. 10/2 Certain nitrogenous substances, which will experimentally give rise to cell-proliferation and forms of tumours in animals, have been detected. 2005 Science 12 Nov. 307/3 The peptide thwarts this process..thereby blocking estrogen-induced cell proliferation in a way not observed in other anticancer drugs. cell surface n. ΚΠ 1860 J. A. Porter Outl. First Course Yale Agric. Lect. 37 Water..is sucked upward from cell surface to cell surface, until it gets to the leaves. 1956 Times 4 Aug. 10/1 When tumour cells come into contact with each other no adhesion..occurs, and the cell surfaces slide over each other. 2005 Isis 96 146/2 The same biological entities, such as oncogenes or cell-surface markers, exist both as normal biological phenomena and as signs of pathology. cell stage n. ΚΠ 1843 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Invertebr. Animals ii. 25 The very step which the Infusoria take beyond the primitive cell-stage invests them with a specific character as independent and distinct in its nature as that of the highest and most complicated organisms. 1878 Lancet 7 Dec. 803/2 There was an arrest of development of the hair at the cell stage. 2007 Developmental Biol. 302 335 (caption) Numbers at the top of the diagram indicate the cell stage. cell structure n. ΚΠ 1845 Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Aug. 605 Notwithstanding the discrepancy with regard to common appearances, the cell structure appears to preserve a fixed standard of decrease. 1954 E. P. Abraham in H. W. Florey Lect. Gen. Pathol. xiii. 244 The absorption coefficient for ultraviolet light..will be very high, for example, in cell structures that are rich in nucleic acid. 1996 D. W. Brown Aromatherapy (Teach Yourself Ser.) ii. 11 The heat and steam cause the cell structure of the plant material to burst and break down, thus freeing the essential oils. cell type n. ΚΠ 1849 T. Addison On Healthy & Diseased Structure ii. 79 Scrofulous diseases express the retrogradation of a special texture to some earlier cell-type. 1964 Times 24 Nov. 13/7 The situation is immensely complex, every tissue and every cell-type being different. 2006 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Feb. 37/2 Long tubes made of cell membrane readily form between immune cells and a variety of other cell types. (b) cell-free adj. ΚΠ 1891 Science 2 Jan. 1/1 This discovery..was soon followed by the work of Buchner and Nisseu on the bacteria-killing power of the cell-free blood-serum. 1946 Nature 6 July 24/2 Antibiotically active cell-free watery extracts could be prepared from cultures on Dorset's egg medium. 2002 Borneo Post 18 Nov. 16/1 This was the first successful use of a human cell-free haemoglobin solution in a paediatric patient to manage life-threatening anaemia due to an autoimmune disease. cell-killing adj. ΚΠ 1921 W. Irwin ‘Next War’ v. 60 Cellars will never form a defence against sinking, lethal, cell-killing gas like Lewisite and its probable successors. 2000 J. Mann Murder, Magic, & Med. (rev. ed.) iii. 85 The cytotoxic (cell-killing) drugs employed in the treatment of cancer almost invariably induce vomiting. cell-lined adj. ΚΠ 1864 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 600/2 The mucous membranes are continuous with the cell-lined vesicles or tubes of the various glands. 1985 Amer. Zoologist 25 53 Historically nemertines have been viewed..as acoelomate bilaterians possessing a cell-lined blood vascular system. 2005 Jrnl. Vascular Surg. 42 1186/2 (figure) Transverse section of naturally resolving thrombus shows cell-lined recanalization channels (arrows) around the organizing thrombus by 7 days. cell-specific adj. [after German zellspezifisch (1913 in the passage translated in quot. 1914)] ΚΠ 1914 J. O. Gavronsky & W. F. Lanchester tr. E. Abderhalden Defensive Ferments Animal Org. 19 There is a great future for cell-specific therapy. 1950 Amer. Naturalist 84 438 The action of the recessive is cell specific and of a recognizable type. 2004 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 16028/2 The recombination event takes place only in selected cells because a cell-specific promoter controls the expression of the recombinase. C3. cell adhesion molecule n. Molecular Biology any of various proteins present on the surface of a cell which mediate its attachment to other cells or to a substrate; abbreviated CAM. ΚΠ 1975 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta: Protein Struct. 412 110 The different properties of discoidin and pallidin are consistent with their suggested role as species-specific, cell adhesion molecules. 1989 New Scientist 4 Mar. (Inside Sci. Suppl.) 2/2 A recent advance is the discovery of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) on the surfaces of cells. These control the stickiness of one cell to another. 2002 Science 4 Oct. 17/1 Adenovirus infects epithelial cells by binding to the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR), which is a cell adhesion molecule found on the basolateral cell surface. cell architecture n. Biology the structure and form of a living cell, spec. that of the cytoskeleton; (also) the structure of a tissue considered in terms of the form and spatial relations of its constituent cells. ΚΠ 1854 Househ. Words 25 Mar. 131/1 In the economy of the cell-architecture nothing is forgotten; and although compelled to erect these solid buttresses, the cell does not the less remember to leave here and there a small spot at which the walls retain their original delicacy and remain easily permeable by fluids. 1942 J. Needham Biochem. & Morphogenesis iii. 658 The intracellular lattice of protein molecules forming the cell architecture. 2007 Jrnl. Nanosci. & Nanotechnol. 7 298 The advantages of the confined and lateral cell architecture as compared to the conventional vertical cell concept are explored. cell biologist n. an expert or specialist in cell biology. ΚΠ 1914 Science 30 Oct. 640/2 Nucleic acids were discovered much later by Altman, a cell biologist. 1972 Amer. Jrnl. Med. 52 1 Cell biologists have calculated that at least 80 per cent of cellular RNA is localized in the ribosomes. 2003 L. Moss What Genes can't Do iii. 81 Additional subcategorizations of the Golgi are variably distinguished by different cell biologists and for different cell types. cellblock n. originally U.S. a building or section of a building containing prison cells. ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > ward or division of prison ward1338 death house1837 cell house1855 cellblock1867 society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > cell > line of cells cellblock1867 row1873 1867 E. C. Wines & T. W. Dwight Rep. Prisons & Reformatories U.S. & Canada i. 95 The cell blocks are of dressed stone, one hundred and sixty-five feet by twenty feet, five ranges high, and each range containing thirty-five cells. 1958 G. M. Sykes Society of Captives v. 94 Close friends possess a stronger claim than..the relative stranger from another cellblock. 2002 S. Turow Reversible Errors (2003) 118 When the main gate to the cellblock finally smashed closed behind them, Gillian's heart squeezed. cell body n. Biology (a) a cell of a unicellular organism, constituting its entire body; (b) the main body of a cell, containing its nucleus and organelles (as opposed to various projections or elements of external structure such as cell wall, flagella, dendrites, etc.). ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > nervous system > substance of nervous system > [noun] > nerve cell > parts of axon1842 cell body1851 neuron1893 neurite1894 neuroplasm1894 perikaryon1897 neurofibril1898 axon hillock1899 telodendrion1899 axoplasm1900 neurofibrilla1902 cyton1910 soma1947 neurotubule1948 neurofilament1955 neurode1987 1851 T. H. Huxley in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 8 439 Food stored up..within the cavity of its cell-body. 1878 F. J. Bell & E. R. Lankester tr. C. Gegenbaur Elements Compar. Anat. 16 A subordinate part of the cell-body. 1942 W. J. S. Krieg Functional Neuroanat. i. 7 If a nerve fiber is cut, the part distal to the cell body dies after a time and with it the myelin sheath. 2006 Environmental Health Perspectives 114 1545/1 With cholinergic agonists such as nicotine, damage to neuronal projections in the forebrain results in reactive sprouting at the cell body. † cell-bred adj. Obsolete born, raised, or formed in a cell. ΚΠ 1743 A. Pope Dunciad (rev. ed.) ii. 356 A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band. 1789 ‘A. Pasquin’ Poems I. 39 Shall cell-bred wenches lift their pond'rous limbs..To flagellate my tortur'd body thus? 1849 I. Taylor Loyola i. vii. 162 He had played his part as a man of the world long enough to rid himself of those illusions which might have misled a cell-bred religious legislator. cell bridge n. Cell Biology (a) = cell junction n.; (b) a bridge of cells between adjacent parts of an organ, groups of cells in a culture, etc. ΚΠ 1896 E. A. Schäfer & G. D. Thain Quain's Elements Anat. (ed. 10) III. iv. 205 All the cells are connected by ‘cell-bridges’ with one another as in a stratified epithelium. 1933 Amer. Naturalist 67 67 This reminds us..of the conditions described above where a cell bridge connected two growing cultures. 1999 Trends Plant Sci. 4 17/1 They [sc. epidermal cells] also appear to remain responsive to contact, which results in the formation of graft-like cell bridges between appressed surfaces. 2006 Zoology 109 15/2 After the meiotic divisions the spermatids start to differentiate. They are connected via extensive cell bridges and their cytoplasm becomes more electronlucent. cell chamber n. chiefly Biology (a) the area inside a cell, esp. a plant cell, defined by the cell membrane or wall; (b) a compartment in a scientific instrument which holds cells or acts as a cell to contain a sample. ΚΠ 1847 E. Wilson Dis. Skin (ed. 2) i. 8 The nucleolus, therefore, is an ‘aggregated granule’, the nucleus a tier..of aggregated granules surrounding the former; and the cell-chamber a tier of aggregated granules inclosing the whole. 1908 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 81 65 The centre tube leading to the cell-chamber was closed with a glass cap. 1953 New Phytologist 52 100 In higher plants and algae the shape of the protoplast is determined by the form of the cell chamber. 2006 C. Allen in D. E. Gardner Toxicol. of Lung (ed. 4) vi. 133 When using volatile chemical agents in these systems, the cell chamber should be sealed. cell column n. (a) Anatomy a cylindrical or linear array of cells, esp. in the central nervous system; (b) Medicine the cellular fraction (packed cells) of a centrifuged blood sample (cf. packed adj.¹ 3a). ΚΠ 1860 G. Buchanan Kölliker's Man. Human Microsc. Anat. 345 The secerning parenchyma of the liver..consist [sic] of solid networks of the hepatic cell-columns. 1943 Science 17 Dec. 545/2 Red cells..can be resuspended and repacked three times without showing any change in the length of the cell column. 1969 R. C. Truex & M. B. Carpenter Human Neuroanat. (ed. 6) xvii. 423/1 In the cat there is evidence that corticopontine fibers arising from the sensorimotor cortex project in a somatotopical manner onto two longitudinally oriented cell columns within the pontine nuclei. 2002 B. Elling et al. Why-driven EMS Enrichment xxxii. 356/2 Because there are far more RBC's than either white blood cells..or platelets, the ‘cell column’ height is a good indication of the number of red blood cells. cell cortex n. [originally after German Zellhülle (1902 in the passage translated in quot. 1904)] Cell Biology a specialized layer of cytoplasm found on the inner face of the cell membrane, typically containing a network of actin microfilaments and associated proteins. ΚΠ 1904 E. B. Titchener tr. W. M. Wundt Princ. Physiol. Psychol. ii. 40 It is probable that the nerve-cells are everywhere devoid of a true cell-cortex. They vary in form from spherical to irregularly angular, and differ..extraordinarily in size. 1937 Biol. Bull. 73 367 Sodium and potassium ions appear to be capable of provoking a release of calcium ions from the cell cortex. 2001 F. M. Harold Way of Cell vii. 140 The cell cortex is comparatively stiff and strong, thanks in part to mechanical tension directed inward. cell count n. chiefly Medicine a determination of the number of cells, esp. blood cells or bacteria, in a sample of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, milk, etc. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > measure > [noun] > count cell count1899 plate count1901 platelet count1909 1899 A. E. Taylor in J. M. Keating Cycl. Dis. Children V. 561 The lower the cell-count the higher the color-index, as a rule. 1962 Lancet 5 May 929/1 The cell-count reached 2000 cocci per ml. 2000 Farmers Weekly 18 Feb. 24/3 The herd average cell count for January also made good reading at 195,000/ml. cell counter n. any device or machine used to perform cell counts. ΚΠ 1892 S. Solis-Cohen & A. A. Eshner Essent. Diagnosis 95 The corpuscular richness of the blood is determined by means of an instrument called a hemocytometer or blood-cell counter.] 1910 F. Lafar Techn. Mycol. II. ii. li. 225 Far greater reliability attaches to determinations made with the cell-counter. 1950 Science 28 Apr. 477/3 Construction of an electronic cell counter to assist studies of comparative anatomy. 2001 S. Fedoroff & A. Richardson Protocols for Neural Cell Cult. (ed. 3) xxvi. 336 Most electronic cell counters cannot distinguish between viable and non-viable cells. cell cycle n. Biology †(a) the cyclic changes (actual or supposed) between certain types of cell form (obsolete rare); (b) the sequence of events by which a eukaryotic cell replicates itself and divides in two. ΚΠ 1888 P. Geddes in Chambers's Encycl. (new ed.) II. 160/1 The study of the unit-mass of protoplasm or cell should next be..generalised into the conception of a simple ‘cell-cycle’, ranging between a more or less passive and encysted spheroidal form to a less or more motile (amœboid or elongated) one. 1901 Biol. Bull. 2 263 I have never observed in Crepidula a rotation of the nuclei, independent of the spindles, at so late a stage in the cell cycle. 1968 New Eng. Jrnl. Med. 8 Feb. 313/1 The mammalian cell cycle has been divided into four major stages: the G₁ or presynthetic; S or DNA synthetic; G₂ or postsynthetic; and finally the M or mitotic phase. 2001 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 9 Oct. a2 Scientists have already started testing drugs designed to influence the cell cycle and make cancer cells stop dividing. cell differentiation n. the usually irreversible process by which unspecialized cells acquire the specific structural and functional features characteristic of a tissue, organ, etc.; the state of having such specialized features. ΚΠ 1863 M. Goldsmith Rep. Hosp. Gangrene 43 Pyæmia may occur independent of any suppuration, in connection with pathological process where the warmest of Virchow's admirers fail to discover any cell-growth or cell-differentiation. 1884 Amer. Naturalist 18 245 These, particularly in some of the Fungi, become very complexly organized, yet they display little or no cell-differentiation. 1962 D. C. Braungart & R. H. Arnett Introd. Plant Biol. v. 66/2 In its broadest sense growth is concerned with three phases of cellular development: cell division, cell elongation, and cell differentiation. 2005 Biotechnol. & Bioengineering 92 492/2 The chief factor limiting stem cell-based therapies is the inability to control the induction and maintenance of cell differentiation in situ. cell doctrine n. Biology (now chiefly historical) = cell theory n. ΚΠ 1844 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Pract. Med. 40 28 We intended to point out the several applications that have been made of the Cell-doctrine to pathological inquiries. 1920 Science 26 Mar. 314 Using many animals to demonstrate the truth of the cell doctrine is not more confusing than the study of profit and loss in arithmetic by problems involving vinegar, woolen goods, automobiles and ostrich feathers. 2001 F. M. Harold Way of Cell iii. 18 In separate publications that appeared in 1838 and 1839, Schleiden and Schwann presented their ‘cell doctrine’: plants and animals are not indivisible wholes but composites made of innumerable cells. cell gallery n. a raised walkway or gallery connecting the cells in a prison. ΚΠ 1791 J. Bentham Panopticon i. 17 Postscript The Cell-Galleries are..perfectly commanded by every station in the Inspection-part. 1852 H. Melville Pierre xxvi. 491 That sundown, Pierre stood solitary in a low dungeon of the city prison... The long tiers of massive cell-galleries above seemed partly piled on him. 1946 J. Monaghan Legend of Tom Horn xxiv. 240 Proctor climbed the iron steps to the cell gallery and put the key into the lock of the two convicts' cell. 1998 Northern Echo (Nexis) 6 Nov. 12 Look up at the three Victorian cell galleries and the difference is striking. cell house n. originally and chiefly U.S. = cellblock n. ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > ward or division of prison ward1338 death house1837 cell house1855 cellblock1867 1855 Pennsylvania Jrnl. Prison Discipline & Philanthropy Oct. 205 Four about the cell house, six about the kitchen and bake house. 1930 C. R. Shaw Jack-Roller iii. xii. 159 The damp cells in the cellhouse had made my muscles..ache. 2007 Beacon Jrnl. (Akron, Ohio) (Nexis) 25 Apr. 8 More than one cell house was involved in the disturbance at the New Castle Correctional Facility. cell junction n. Cell Biology (a) a synapse (now rare); (b) an area of direct contact between the cell membranes or cytoplasm of adjacent cells; esp. a desmosome or plasmodesma. ΚΠ 1866 Fortn. Rev. 3 740 The special growths accompanying memory must operate at these cell junctions. 1886 Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Bot. 21 619 (caption) Cell-junction in longitudinal section. 1953 New Phytologist 52 152 There are many small air-spaces within the parenchyma in the form of small caniculae at cell junctions. 1995 C. Nielsen Animal Evol. v. 36 The body of a cellularian sponge is surrounded by the pinacoderm, a layer of epithelial cells which are not connected by cell junctions. 2003 D. Sternberg Ultimate Guide Freshwater Fishing iii. 339 Found mainly in boggy lakes and small streams, redbellies have a distinct lateral band, a second, less-distinct band just above it and a reddish to yellowish belly. cell layer n. Biology a layer of cells, spec. the endoderm, mesoderm, or ectoderm of the early embryo. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo parts > [noun] > membrane and layers of cells germinal layer1836 cell layer1843 mucous layer1846 germ layer1855 mesoblast1857 blastoderm1859 head fold1873 mesoderm1873 epiblast1875 hypoblast1875 splanchnopleure1875 mesenchyme1881 acroblast1884 mesothelium1886 epimere1890 mesectoderm1894 mesendoderm1894 cœloblast1895 placode1907 shield1913 mesentoderm1921 meristoderm1945 bilayer1962 1843 Lancet 25 Nov. 264/1 The situation and relation of these cells between the cell-layers forming the animal and vegetative laminæ, make it possible that they belong to that which becomes what certainly manifests itself as the vascular lamina. 1893 J. Tuckey tr. B. Hatschek Amphioxus 55 All changes from the blastula onwards can be traced to these primitive cell-layers. 1947 A. D. Imms Outl. Entomol. (ed. 3) iii. 79 After fertilization, the resulting segmentation nucleus divides and many of the nuclei thus produced pass outward to form, with the periplasm, a continuous cell layer or blastoderm. 1993 Brit. Jrnl. Orthodontics 20 3/1 DNA was then hydrolysed with 0.1 M NaOH..and the cell layer removed by agitation with a rubber policeman. cell lethal n. and adj. Biology (a) n.a mutation which causes the death of the cell in which it occurs; (b) adj.lethal to cells; causing cell death. ΚΠ 1934 Science 2 Feb. 109/1 Papers [were] presented on..somatic segregation, crossing-over and gene deficiencies as cell-lethals. 1934 Amer. Naturalist 68 165 In every case the deficiency tested had a cell lethal effect. 1962 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 157 121 It is difficult to see how dominant cell lethals can be important in aging. 2002 L. I. Held Imaginal Discs v. 100/1 Much of the later data came from a cell-lethal mutation whose gene product was then unknown. cell lethality n. Biology the property of causing cell death; (also) cell death itself. ΚΠ 1950 Amer. Naturalist 84 358 Demerec..has tested various deletions for cell-lethality. 1983 BioScience 33 334/2 Cell lethality induced by near-ultraviolet radiation is primarily due to lesions produced in cellular genetic material (DNA). 2006 A. S. Grandison in J. G. Brennan Food Processing Handbk. v. 153 Remarkably little chemical damage to the system is required to cause cell lethality, because DNA molecules are enormous compared to other molecules in the cell. cell line n. Biology a population of cells sharing a common lineage; spec. such a population maintained in cell culture and consisting of cells which are descended from a single primary culture. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > material > [noun] > culture or medium > cells in culture cell strain1932 cell line1940 1926 Q. Rev. Biol. 1 32/1 In many cases there was complete loss of the germinal cell line.] 1940 Trans. Amer. Microsc. Soc. 59 342 Meyer..traced the cell-lineage of N. rutili, and found that from the two-cell stage on, the plasma density of the blastomeres was dissimilar in that one cell-line was richer in plasma, had a different mitotic rhythm, [etc.]. 1961 M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) xxv. 379 Cell lines such as the HeLa strain are generally used for routine culture and antibody titration. 2003 Philadelphia Inquirer 15 May a3/4 The President ordered that stem-cell research could continue but that scientists receiving federal funds could use only cell lines that were available as of that day. cell lineage n. Biology the manner in which the parts of a multicellular organism develop from the blastomeres of the embryo; the line of descent of a cell from a blastomere or other embryonic precursor; a population of cells sharing such a line of descent. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo development processes > [noun] fetalization1819 segmentation1851 maceration1873 neurulation1878 blastulation1889 concrescence1890 cell lineage1892 myelination1892 spiral cleavage1892 medullation1893 myelinization1900 myelogenesis1901 induction1928 myelinogenesis1931 horizon1942 1892 E. B. Wilson in Jrnl. Morphol. 6 361 The cell-lineage of Nereis. 1946 Nature 5 Oct. 461/2 Tissue culture made it possible to prove that the cell-lineages of the ordinary somatic cells of the body are indefinite or indeterminate. 1992 P. R. Crocker & G. Milon in C. E. Lewis & J. O'D. McGee Macrophage iii. 117 Haematopoiesis is a complex physiological process which involves the simultaneous growth and differentiation of eight distinct cell lineages, all of which are derived from a single cell, the self-renewing pluripotent stem cell. 2002 S. J. Gould Struct. Evolutionary Theory v. 383 He made his primary reputation in ‘cell lineage’ studies of the fates and products of the earliest blastomeres. cellmate n. a person with whom a cell (in later use, a prison cell) is shared. ΚΠ 1728 Mem. Eng. Officer 326 He had a hole Brother of the same Order, that was his Cell-mate, or Chamber-fellow. 1850 G. Thompson Prison Life & Refl. iii. ix. 331 At night, he was locked in his cell with his sickly cell-mate, without any light, where he frequently had fits! 1942 P. G. Wodehouse Let. 11 May in Yours, Plum (1990) iii. 90 When I was in Loos Prison the first week, a dozen of us were released because they were sixty, including my cellmate William Cartmell. 2003 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 22 Apr. 12/2 At the Pelican Bay State Prison..inmates are kept inside their tiny cells 22½ hours a day. Most have cellmates, but one-third are kept alone. cell-mediated adj. Biology brought about by the action of cells; spec. (esp. in cell-mediated immunity) designating immunological processes that depend upon the activity of T lymphocytes (as opposed to antibodies); cf. humoral adj. ΚΠ 1959 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 242 469 It is probable that the response of the injected cells against the host takes the form of orthodox (i.e. cell mediated) homograft rejection. 1973 Frederick (Maryland) Post 6 Dec. a11/1 They developed a specific, practical method for measuring the cell-mediated response and used it to study infants vaccinated with live rubella virus. 1984 M. J. Taussig Processes in Pathol. & Microbiol. (ed. 2) ii. 147 In a non-infected individual, a positive delayed reaction in the skin indicates the presence of cell-mediated immunity as a result of previous infection or immunisation. 2004 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 165 556/2 This packing arrangement..is highly indicative of a cell-mediated mechanism of fibrin deposition. cell membrane n. Biology a thin, semipermeable lipid bilayer with incorporated proteins which encloses a cell and regulates the flow of materials in and out; cf. membrane n. 1e. ΚΠ 1840 M. Barry in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 130 603 The thickening of the wall is not a thickening of the cell-membrane itself. 1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. ii. 34 Such a cell would consist of a spheroidal or irregular mass of protoplasm, limited by a definite cell membrane or cell wall. 2006 New Scientist 18 Feb. 38/1 The ‘minisleep’ mutant carries a change to a single gene, encoding a protein involved in potassium transport across cell membranes. cell memory n. Biology the continuation or repetition of a particular metabolic process or other activity by a cell; spec. the phenomenon whereby cells remain committed to a particular line of differentiation during multiple generations of descent. ΚΠ 1889 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 2 269 To speak of the habit of a cell is not as confusing as to speak of cell-memory. 1905 Jrnl. Hygiene 5 520 The active formation of antibody during the course of the primary response has given a bias to the cell metabolism, leaving a kind of cell-memory so far as that stimulus is concerned. 1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xvi. 901 The mechanisms of cell memory may be..cytoplasmic, involving molecules in the cytoplasm that act back on the nucleus to maintain their own synthesis. 2005 E. Jablonka & M. J. Lamb Evol. in Four Dimensions vii. 251 It is quite clear that without cell memory, plants and animals with many types of differentiated cells simply could not have evolved. cell nest n. [after German Zellennest (1870 in the passage translated in quot. 1873, or earlier)] Medicine and Biology = nest n. 7b. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > substance > cell > types of cells > [noun] > motile or amoebic cell > cluster of nest1871 cell nest1873 swarm1900 macula densa1942 1873 D. B. St. John Roosa et al. tr. C. Stellwag Treat. Dis. Eye (ed. 4) 364 The cell-nest without distinct limit is lost in the surrounding tissue. 1968 H. O. Mackey & J. P. Mackey Handbk. Dis. Skin (ed. 9) xxxvii. 378 The ‘horny pearl’ (‘epithelial pearl’ or ‘cell nest’) is made up of layers of epithelial cells arranged concentrically and displaying from without inwards the various stages of cornification. 1997 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 139 277/2 [These] endothelial cells initially form compact cell nests with tight cell–cell contacts. cell nesting n. Medicine and Biology the formation of cell nests. ΚΠ 1897 Australasian Med. Gaz. 20 Oct. 512/2 Microscopically there were typical down growths of epithelium, marked cell nesting, and presence of prickle cells. 1914 Lancet 7 Feb. 388/2 A section taken from..under the left nostril showed marked prolongation downwards of the epithelium with distinct cell-nesting. 2003 Cryobiology 47 144/1 Investigations of freezing of normal and neoplastic liver and some other tissues revealed cell nesting as a mechanism to hold water in tumors. cell nucleus n. [after German Zellenkern (1844 in the source translated in quot. 1846)] Biology = nucleus n. 7. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > substance > cell > cell organelle or contents > [noun] > nucleus nucleus1833 cell nucleus1846 karyosome1894 1846 A. Henfrey tr. C. Nägeli Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 246 Cell-nuclei occur in all classes and orders of plants. 1888 Lancet 31 Mar. 633/2 These changes..are marked by abnormal cleavage and chemical alteration of the cell-nuclei. 1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. i. i. 3 The protoplasm is composed mostly of protein, the cell nucleus of nucleoproteins and lipins. 2004 Sci. News 20 Mar. 181/2 Ancient bones don't often yield mitochondrial DNA, which is located outside the cell nucleus and is inherited from the mother. cell plate n. Botany a structure formed during the mitotic division of a plant cell when Golgi-derived vesicles containing cell wall precursors fuse to form a partition between the two daughter cells. ΚΠ 1872 Lancet 7 Sept. 344/2 Each of these little segments or cylinders split longitudinally, and, unrolling itself, proved to be a square cell-plate or lamina, with a nucleus near its centre. 1960 K. Esau Anat. Seed Plants iv. 33 The exact nature of this cell plate, when it is first discernible, is not known, but it may possibly contain the pectic materials that later constitute the middle lamella. 2003 Planta 218 205/1 Cytokinesis involves the deposition of cell wall material during the formation and rapid outward expansion of the cell plate. cell process n. (a) a projection from the body of a neuron or other cell (cf. process n. 13a); (b) a metabolic process or other activity occurring within a cell. ΚΠ 1859 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 149 445 Some of them [sc. nerve fibres] partly enclose it; apparently in connexion with the cell-processes. 1885 Lancet 15 Aug. 300/2 He [sc. Virchow] says that the future will see a reaction in favour of the reestablishment of cell-life and cell-processes as the real foundation of diseased action. 1915 W. M. Bayliss Princ. Gen. Physiol. xi. 363 The work done in secretion is, in the main, of two kinds, although the ultimate source of both lies in chemical energy utilised in cell processes. 2004 C. Barnard Animal Behaviour v. 231 There are six touch receptors, each with a long cell process extending anteriorly and cemented to the hypodermis by a mantle. cell sap n. Biology liquid substance found between, or within the cells of a tissue; (now usually) = hyaloplasm n. at hyalo- comb. form . ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > substance > cell > cell substance > [noun] > protoplasm or cytoplasm > types or forms of cytoblastema1840 cell sap1842 hyaline1864 metaplasm1875 plasson1879 nucleoplasm1882 reticulum1883 hyaloplasm1886 mitome1886 paramitome1886 spongioplasm1886 paraplasm1887 paraplasma1891 trophoplasm1892 kinoplasm1894 blepharoplast1897 plasmagel1923 plasmasol1923 1842 F. J. Meyen in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 9 34 Indigo is produced in the intercellular sap (by which is meant the ordinary cell-sap). 1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. ii. 34 The spaces or meshes of this spongioplasmic network are filled with the less dense ground substance or cell sap, called also the hyaloplasm, paraplasm, or interfilar substance. 1992 D. G. Campbell Crystal Desert v. 100 They intercept invading viruses, bacteria, and protozoans, rupturing and leaking their cell sap onto the invaders, clumping onto them and causing them to disintegrate. cell sheath n. Biology an additional external layer occurring around certain types of cell; esp. the myelin sheath of a neuron or a layer of mucilage or glycoprotein surrounding certain prokaryotes. ΚΠ 1863 Philos. Trans. 1862 (Royal Soc.) 152 933 We have seen that the cell-sheath or wall is the product of, and indeed is constituted by, the very surface of the primitive nucleus or cell. 1904 New Phytologist 3 217 Cells about to develop into spores..exhibit two well-marked integuments at an early stage... The outer one (cell-sheath)..takes the form of a hollow, more or less cylindrical sheath, surrounding the inner investment. 1960 Jrnl. Biophysical & Biochem. Cytol. 8 816/2 The cells of blue-green algae have been described as lacking the rigid cell wall that is present in bacteria and as being bounded instead by two layers, the ‘cell sheath’..and the ‘inner investment’. 2001 Ann. Diagnostic Pathol. 5 21 There was abundant lymphoid infiltrate surrounding and invading the cell sheaths. cell spot n. Entomology a spot of colour in the spaces between the nerves in the wings of some butterflies and moths. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths > [noun] > parts of > spot of colour between nerves cell spot1899 1899 W. J. Ansorge Under Afr. Sun xii. 308 It is distinguished by the entire absence of the dark cell-spot. 1948 Ecology 29 461/2 The intermediates are judged by..the intensity of the orange pigment in the hind wing cell spot. 2000 M. F. Braby Butterflies of Austral. I. 240/2 Pelopidas agna may be distinguished from Parnara bada by the presence of..two cell spots on the fore wing in the female. cell strain n. Biology a cell line; (also) a subculture of a cell line selected for a particular characteristic. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > material > [noun] > culture or medium > cells in culture cell strain1932 cell line1940 1932 Science 11 Nov. 446/2 The cell strain derived from the 17-day-old embryo showed a rate of cell multiplication that was consistently higher. 1958 Jrnl. Immunol. 81 426/1 Advances in tissue culture techniques have made available numerous stable cell strains..which have contributed to recent developments in virology. 2004 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 5946/2 Cell strains containing expression plasmids were grown aerobically. cell substance n. [after German Zellsubstanz (1829 or earlier)] Biology †(a) the (supposed) substance from which cells develop; an instance of this (obsolete); (b) the constituent matter of a cell, (in later use) esp. the cytoplasm; (also) (as a count noun) any substance found in a cell. ΚΠ 1842 London & Edinb. Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Oct. 886 The basis is a membrance of extreme tenacity..possessing the power of forming from that blood a whitish ‘cell-substance’, which is deposited in a layer around it. 1847 H. Smith tr. T. Schwann Microsc. Res. Animals & Plants 209 The cell-substance is..soluble in the cytoblastema, and crystallizes from it, so soon as the latter becomes saturated with it. 1874 A. E. J. Barker tr. H. Frey Histol. & Histochem. of Man 66 This primordial cell-substance is known at the present day by the name protoplasm. 1950 T. Caspersson Cell Growth & Cell Function iii. 61 There are two groups of cell substances that are more easily studied by microspectrographic procedures than any others. These are the proteins..and the polynucleotides. 2006 Alberni Valley (Brit. Columbia) Times (Nexis) 29 Nov. (Health section) 5 The paramount importance of the inorganic constituents of the cell substance was recognized. cell theory n. [after German Theorie der Zellen (1839 in Schwann's book: see sense 15a)] now chiefly historical the theory that cells are the fundamental structural and functional units of life, sufficient to constitute a single-celled organism and serving as the working units of every multicellular organism.The cell theory is usually attributed to the work of Schwann and Schleiden: see sense 15a. ΚΠ 1843 Lancet 24 June 451/2 To have a complete view of these structures we must combine the cell theory of Schwann and Müller, the coagulation principle.., and the process of organisation investigated by Kiernan. 1881 T. H. Huxley in Science 10 Sept. 428/2 The zoölogists and botanists, exploring the simplest and lowest forms of animated beings, confirmed the great induction of the cell theory. 1929 Sci. Monthly Sept. 226/1 If Schleiden and Schwann are the fathers of the cell-theory, Purkinje is at least its great uncle. 2007 D. Young Discov. Evol. (ed. 2) vii. 157 The process by which a cell divides was also observed, and was incorporated in the cell theory by Rudolph Virchow. cell therapy n. Medicine (a) treatment of humans with living cells from various animal species, (formerly) used esp. for conditions associated with ageing; (b) treatment with various types of cell of human origin, (in later use) esp. stem cells; an instance of this. ΚΠ 1901 J. R. Hawley New Animal Cellular Therapy viii. 67 Before attempting the employment of this cell therapy let the physician understand at the outset that his medical knowledge will be in more constant demand. 1957 Current Med. Pract. 1 33/1 The cell-therapy must be continued for a long time but the results are better than with any other treatment. 1989 Cancer Genetics & Cytogenetics 39 (Abstracts) 5 Cell therapy will not be limited to subsets of lymphocytes but will include macrophages and even nonhematopoietic cells such as endothelial cells. 2001 N.Y. Times 26 Aug. iii. 11/6 Therapeutic cloning would ‘never, ever fly’ because it is individualized cell therapy, not mass cloning, that is needed for cell therapies to succeed commercially. cell tower n. Telecommunications a tower or mast which transmits and receives cell phone signals over one or more cells in a mobile phone system; cf. sense 21. ΚΠ 1984 ABA Jrnl. July 48/2 This is accomplished without the user's knowledge by a transfer of calls from one cell tower to the next. 2003 Pop. Sci. Sept. 42/2 AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile have employed another technique..which triangulates a caller's location using three or more cell towers. 2015 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 3 Mar. b2/6 Google's service would offer voice and data primarily through Wi-Fi signals, and use cell towers only in areas beyond the reach of Wi-Fi. cell transformation n. Medicine change in the form or function of a cell; spec. transformation of a normal cell into a neoplastic cell (cf. transformation n. 3i). ΚΠ 1845 London Med. Gaz. 18 Oct. 71/1 The secretions, the organs of secretion, and the blood, are three marked and recognised stages of cell-transformation. 1906 Lancet 8 Sept. 655/2 The spontaneous development of cancer is supposed to depend on two factors: (1) the primary cancerous cell transformation and (2) the growth of this small cancerous area into a tumour. 1999 R. A. Weinberg One Renegade Cell viii. 83 Single oncogenes acting alone cannot transform fully normal cells into tumor cells, while various pairs of oncogenes..cooperate with one another to induce cell transformation. cell tray n. Horticulture a seed tray divided into individual sowing compartments. ΚΠ 1988 Gardener Feb. 44/4 Seeds..can be individually sown in pots or cell trays. 2005 Grow your Own Dec. 37/2 Beet seeds can be sown in ‘propapacks’ or cell trays for transplanting to give more reliable results. cell wall n. [apparently after German Zellwand (1828 or earlier)] a rigid layer present outside the cell membrane in plants, fungi, algae, and many bacteria, consisting mainly of cellulose and other polysaccharides (in plants, fungi, and algae) or peptidoglycans (in bacteria), and providing cells with structure and protection. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > substance > cell > parts of cell > [noun] > wall or membranes septum1720 cell wall1840 valve1852 periplast1853 stroma1872 ghost1879 endoplasmic reticulum1883 plasma membrane1893 plasmalemma1923 unit membrane1958 purple membrane1968 1840 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 130 551 Schleiden remarks, ‘The formation of secondary deposits on the inner surface of the cell-wall does not commence..until after the absorption of the cytoblast.’ 1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 3 Older wood and cork thus consist of a mere framework of cell-walls. 1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. iii. x. 100 The pectose of the cell-wall is a condensation product of pectin and cellulose, that is, a pectocellulose, similar in constitution to the glycosides. 1959 Times 2 Jan. 11/3 Penicillin does not affect the growth of the staphylococcus but it does prevent its forming a cell wall. 2006 Science 11 Aug. 774 (caption) This differentiation process, mediated by the secreted factor xylogen, results in secondary cell-wall thickening and programmed cell death. Derivatives cell-less adj. ΚΠ 1809 W. Martin Outl. Attempt Knowl. Extraneous Fossils ii. 110 Cell-less (ecellosum) without cells. Gorgoniae, &c. 1892 Amer. Naturalist 26 118 Conversion of the cortex to a cell-less pallium. 1999 J. Min in W. Hofkirchner Quest for Unified Theory of Information x. 153 Mycoplasma has a communication system, capable of independent self-replication and multiplication in the cell-less culture. cell-like adj. ΚΠ 1748 W. Gilpin Dialogue upon Gardens Lord Viscount Cobham 17 It appears quite Cell-like, stands retired, and is made of no other Materials but Roots and Moss. 1775 J. Ellis in Philos. Trans. 1776 (Royal Soc.) 66 15 The cell-like divisions..are only a row of single blebs of pith. 1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life Introd. 17 No morphological unit, nor even any cell-like or ‘cytoid’ body, can have been at work. 1940 Times 27 Dec. 5/6 In an East End district is a long line of cell-like structures. 1977 P. B. Medawar & J. S. Medawar Life Sci. xv. 122 The most obviously cell-like part of the neurone is called the cell-body or perikaryon, and this houses the nucleus. 2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 July b7/6 [He]..dismissed the staging as ‘little more than a “mise en espace”, with singers standing and singing in a cell-like chamber’. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022). † celln.² Origin: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: kell n. Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps a transmission error for, or arising from a misapprehension of, kell n. (compare kell n. 5). Compare earlier caul n.¹ Obsolete. rare. Probably: = caul n.¹ 5a. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > internal organs > cavities occupied by internal organs > [noun] > abdomen > membranes of neteOE caul1382 siphac1398 zirbusa1400 womb cloutc1400 mesentery?a1425 omentum?a1425 peritoneum?a1425 paunch clout1440 epiploön?1541 mesenterium?1541 mesaraeum1543 rim1565 kell1578 rind1585 belly-piece1591 coif1597 cell1607 reticulum1615 mesocolon1684 mesogaster1807 mesocaecum1835 ruffle1846 mesogastrium1848 mid-gut1875 mesovarium1882 mesocyst1890 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 644 The fat of sheepe which is gathered from the caule or cell [L. Seuum ex omento pecudis]. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2021). celln.³ Brit. /sɛl/, U.S. /sɛl/ Origin: Formed within English, by clipping or shortening. Etymon: cell phone n. Etymology: Short for cell phone n. Compare slightly earlier cellular n. 3. Chiefly North American. 1. A portable wireless telephone that transmits and receives signals via a cellular (cellular adj. 6) network; a cell phone, a mobile phone; esp. (in later use) a smartphone.Recorded earliest in cell number n. at Compounds 2. ΚΠ 1988 Cellular follow me Roaming in comp.dcom.telecom (Usenet newsgroup) 30 Nov. It would be nice if the home MTSO [mobile telephone switching office] had a landline number..to let you set/clear call forwarding (and voice mail) on your cell number while out of town. 1993 Re: Materialistic People vs. Arrogant People in soc.culture.hongkong (Usenet newsgroup) 10 Nov. I don't see what's wrong with a cell. To some, it's a convenience for others to reach them. 1998 M. Saraceni et al. Denial, Anger, Acceptance (HBO TV shooting script) 43 (stage direct.) in Sopranos 1st Ser. (O.E.D. Archive) Tony's cell rings. It's Silvio. 2009 J. Kellerman True Detectives xxxv. 355 Moe was driving home, talking to Liz on his cell. 2. A person's cell phone number. ΚΠ 2001 I. Slater Knockout xxxv. 248 ‘Can you give me your cell and e-mail?’ He wrote it down, hung up, and passed the information to his clerk. 2008 @jmanstudios 20 Oct. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Cool! What's your cell in case I need to call u? 2015 S. Robinson Surface ix. 71 ‘You called my house..?’ He nodded... ‘I didn't have your cell.’ Compounds C1. General attributive and objective, as cell bill, cell company, cell user, etc. ΚΠ 1990 Re: Rates for Cellular Phones in comp.dcom.telecom (Usenet newsgroup) 18 Apr. Just another addicted cell user..dunno how I got along without it. 1996 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 26 Aug. (Zone West section) 4 My monthly cell bill includes long-distance charges. 1999 Steinbach (Manitoba) Carillon 29 Nov. 13 a/2 Many have complained about the lack of cell reception in the Grunthal area. 2003 Pop. Sci. Dec. 6/1 A cellphone company can base its ad campaign on the fact that other cell companies' phones often don't work in places where they should. 2009 USA Today 18 Feb. 6/1 Under the proposal, drivers could not be pulled over just for cell use. C2. cell carrier n. a company providing access to a cell phone network. ΚΠ 1990 Ameritech Mobile Pricing Changes in comp.dcom.telecom (Usenet newsgroup) 1 May Someone who travels out of town a lot, reprograms his own phone with the cell carrier's blessings, and saves big $$ each time he does it. 2013 F. Vogelstein Dogfight iii. 78 Consumers got the freedom to switch cell carriers or cancel their cell service anytime..in return for paying..for the iPhone. cell number n. a person's cell phone number. ΘΚΠ society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > number number1879 telephone number1880 home number1898 phone number1911 silent number1913 wrong number1930 4111931 9991937 area code1946 9111968 800 number1971 cell number1988 0800 number1988 digit1989 1988 Cellular follow me Roaming in comp.dcom.telecom (Usenet newsgroup) 30 Nov. It would be nice if the home MTSO [mobile telephone switching office] had a landline number..to let you set/clear call forwarding (and voice mail) on your cell number while out of town. 1995 Daily News (N.Y.) (Nexis) 1 Oct. (Business section) 1 Be selective when giving out your cell number. 2014 R. Thayne Snow Angel Cove i. 14 I have your cell number. I'll be in touch as soon as things settle down. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022). cellv. Brit. /sɛl/, U.S. /sɛl/ Forms: see cell n.¹ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: cell n.¹ Etymology: < cell n.¹ Compare earlier celled adj. 1. a. transitive (in passive). To be shut up or enclosed in, or as though in, a cell; (now esp.) to be shut up with (another person). ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > imprison [verb (transitive)] > in a cell cell1592 cellularize1948 the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > enclosing or confining > enclose or confine [verb (transitive)] > as in specific place box1551 encagea1586 bung1592 cell1592 oven1596 pew1609 enfold?1611 stya1616 incabinate1672 web1864 1592 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) vii. xxxvii. 163 A Recluse from the world: and, celled vnder ground. 1894 T. D. English Select Poems 355 The hermit of the belfry here, Celled in the upper atmosphere. 1916 J. W. Riley Compl. Wks. II. 403 Honey, too, celled in its fretted vase Of gummy gold. 1994 D. J. Champion Measuring Offender Risk p. x Should check forgers..and petty thieves be celled with those convicted of aggravated rape, assault, or murder? 2002 Law & Society Rev. 36 756 Inmates may not request and are not allowed to be celled with a particular inmate for any reason. b. intransitive. To live in a cell; (now esp.) to share a prison cell with another person. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabiting a type of place > inhabit type of place [verb (intransitive)] > dwell in cell cell1592 society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > be imprisoned [verb (intransitive)] > with another prisoner cell1903 1592 W. Wyrley Lord Chandos in True Vse Armorie 96 An Abbey strong..Wherein there celd a Monke of enuious moode. 1850 G. Thompson Prison Life & Refl. (1857) iii. x. 351 Some who celled near by, said, they ‘never heard such hot times in the guard-room before’. 1903 ‘J. Flynt’ Rise of Ruderick Clowd iii. 108 I celled for a couple o' years with old Darbsey—he was doin' life. 1965 T. Capote In Cold Blood iii. 130 He was the first fellow I celled with. We celled together I guess a month. 1998 C. Himes Yesterday will make you Cry iii. i. 170 The brick building, where, what now seemed like a long time ago, in some former life, Jimmy had celled in the coal company dormitory when first coming to prison. 2. transitive. To store in cells. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [verb (transitive)] > store honey in cells (of bees) cell1819 1819 J. H. Wiffen Aonian Hours 75 Honey, which the bee Cells beneath briery boughs. 1927 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 90/1 Last autumn one of my stocks celled twelve pounds in twelve hours. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < n.¹OEn.²1607n.³1988v.1592
随便看	eddaic eddas edder eddering eddic eddied eddies eddish eddish-cheese eddish-crop eddish-grass eddish-hen eddishcheese eddishcrop eddishes eddishgrass eddishhen eddoes eddre eddy eddy loss eddy-breeze eddy-chamber eddy-current eddy-current brake

celln.1

Compounds

Derivatives

† celln.2

celln.3

Compounds

cellv.

celln.¹

† celln.²

celln.³