CELL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cell

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/sɛl/ Listen

noun

Cell n.

1.

A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit. "The heroic confessor in his cell."

2.

A small religious house attached to a monastery or convent. "Cells or dependent priories."

3.

Any small cavity, or hollow place.

4.

(Arch.)

(a)

The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.

(b)

Same as Cella.

5.

(Elec.) A jar of vessel, or a division of a compound vessel, for holding the exciting fluid of a battery.

6.

(Biol.) One of the minute elementary structures, of which the greater part of the various tissues and organs of animals and plants are composed. Note: All cells have their origin in the primary cell from which the organism was developed. In the lowest animal and vegetable forms, one single cell constitutes the complete individual, such being called unicelluter orgamisms. A typical cell is composed of a semifluid mass of protoplasm, more or less granular, generally containing in its center a nucleus which in turn frequently contains one or more nucleoli, the whole being surrounded by a thin membrane, the cell wall. In some cells, as in those of blood, in the amoeba, and in embryonic cells (both vegetable and animal), there is no restricting cell wall, while in some of the unicelluliar organisms the nucleus is wholly wanting.

Air cell. See Air cell.

Cell development (called also cell genesis, cell formation, and cytogenesis), the multiplication, of cells by a process of reproduction under the following common forms; segmentation or fission, gemmation or budding, karyokinesis, and endogenous multiplication. See Segmentation, Gemmation, etc.

Cell theory. (Biol.) See Cellular theory, under Cellular.

verb

Cell v. t. (past & past part. celled) To place or inclose in a cell. "Celled under ground." (R.)

See images of 'Cell'

Etymology of 'Cell'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cell" Quotes from Famous Books

... to be shot in the back," said the young man. "If I am to be executed, it must be done with witnesses in proper form. I shall refuse to go. If Margaret should come, and it is possible, I want you to sit down with her in front of my cell so that I can see her, but do not tell her that I am here. It would increase her trouble and do no good. Besides, I could not permit myself to touch her hand even, but I would love to look ...

— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

... Glasses, the one exactly flat on both sides, the other flat on the one side, and convex on the other, of what Sphere you please. Let the flat Glass be a little broader than the other. Then let there be made a Cell or Ring of Brass, very exactly turn'd, into which these two Glasses may be so fastened with Cement, that the plain surfaces of them may lye exactly paralell, and that the Convex-side of the Plano-convex-Glass may ...

— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various

... monks of Cirencester, who continued to hold it until the reign of Henry VIII. The manor of Avebury was granted in the reign of Henry I. to the Benedictine monks of St George of Boucherville in Normandy, and a cell from that abbey was subsequently established here. In consequence of the war with France in the reign of Edward III., this manor was annexed by the crown, and was conferred on the newly founded college of New College, Oxford, together with all ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various

... I walked beneath the vaulted roofs of the ancient cloisters, and heard in the silence the sound of the water from the spring, falling drop by drop. I entered a cell that I might the better realize my own utter nothingness, something of the peace that my predecessor had found there seemed to pass into my soul. An inscription, which in accordance with the custom of the ...

— The Country Doctor • Honore de Balzac

... thee I know is dear; Then the saddest of music is ever here, For Grief sits with me in my cell, And she is ...

— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume III - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

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