cell
A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
Noun
- A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
- So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […]. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- For three days he and his attendants had wandered in the forest without seeing a human form: but on the evening of the third they came to a cell, in which they found a venerable hermit in the agonies of death. - 1764,...
- A small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger religious establishment.
- A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.
- Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell.
- A nunʼs bedroom is properly called a cell and is small, bare, and plain, without comfort. - 2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 315:
- A room in a prison or jail for one or more inmates.
- The combatants spent the night in separate cells.
Synonyms: prison cell
- Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
- Any of various chambers in a tissue or organism having specific functions.
- Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom[…]. - 1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282:
- The discal cell of the wing of a lepidopteran insect.
- Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories.
- How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept. - 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph]...
- [W]e shall feel still more contempt for the order of men, who cultivated their faculties, only to enable them to consolidate their power, by leading the ignorant astray; making the learning they concentrated in their...
- From cell to cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man's appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre. - 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The...
- A section or compartment of a larger structure.
- Any small dwelling; a remote nook, a den.
- Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed[…]. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […]...
- Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell[…]. - 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne...
- A device which stores electrical power; used either singly or together in batteries; the basic unit of a battery.
- This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells.
- The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a quantity of protoplasm surrounded by a cell membrane, which is able to synthesize proteins and replicate itself.
- An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs. - 1999 February 15, Paul Brown, Dave King, The Guardian:
- In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs. - 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3:
Origin
From Middle English celle, selle, from Old English cell (attested in inflected forms), from Latin cella (“chamber, small room, compartment”), later reinforced by Old French cel, sele, Old French cele. Ultimately from Proto-Italic *kelnā, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelneh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”). Doublet of cella and hall.
Forms
Synonyms
Hyponyms
adipocyte basophil blood cell brain cell gamete gametocyte germ cell granulocyte leukocyte lymphocyte macrophage mast cell monocyte myelocyte neuron oocyte osteocyte phagocyte spermatocyte thrombocyte zygote somatic cell
Related
Derived
120-cell 16-cell 24-cell 57-cell 5-cell 600-cell 8-cell absorption cell air cell alpha cell angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma antigen-presenting cell APUD cell attocell auxiliary cell band cell barycell basal cell basal cell carcinoma basket cell battery cell B cell B-cell Bénard cell
Noun Australia, India
- A cellular phone.
Origin
Ellipsis of cell phone, itself a clipping of cellular phone, from cellular + phone.
Forms
Synonyms
Hyponyms
adipocyte basophil blood cell brain cell gamete gametocyte germ cell granulocyte leukocyte lymphocyte macrophage mast cell monocyte myelocyte neuron oocyte osteocyte phagocyte spermatocyte thrombocyte zygote somatic cell
Related
Verb
- To place or enclose in a cell.
- Myself a recluse from the world, And celled under ground, Lest that the gould, the precious stones, And pleasures, here be found - 1586, William Warner, Albion's England: