(n.) An instrument by means of which the bolt of a lock is shot or drawn; usually, a removable metal instrument fitted to the mechanism of a particular lock and operated by turning in its place.
(n.) An instrument which is turned like a key in fastening or adjusting any mechanism; as, a watch key; a bed key, etc.
(n.) That part of an instrument or machine which serves as the means of operating it; as, a telegraph key; the keys of a pianoforte, or of a typewriter.
(n.) A position or condition which affords entrance, control, pr possession, etc.; as, the key of a line of defense; the key of a country; the key of a political situation. Hence, that which serves to unlock, open, discover, or solve something unknown or difficult; as, the key to a riddle; the key to a problem.
(n.) That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position.
(n.) A piece of wood used as a wedge.
(n.) The last board of a floor when laid down.
(n.) A keystone.
(n.) That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
(n.) A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock.
(n.) A bar, pin or wedge, to secure a crank, pulley, coupling, etc., upon a shaft, and prevent relative turning; sometimes holding by friction alone, but more frequently by its resistance to shearing, being usually embedded partly in the shaft and partly in the crank, pulley, etc.
(n.) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; -- called also key fruit.
(n.) A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "flat seven," etc. Scales and tunes of every variety are made from the tones of a key.
(n.) The fundamental tone of a movement to which its modulations are referred, and with which it generally begins and ends; keynote.
(n.) Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
(v. t.) To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
Example Sentences:
(1) Community involvement is a key element of the Primary Health Care (PHC) approach, and thus an essential topic on a course for managers of Primary Health Care programmes.
(2) A key way of regaining public trust will be reforming the system of remuneration as agreed by the G20.
(3) Instead, the White House opted for a low-key approach, publishing a blogpost profiling Trinace Edwards, a brain-tumour victim who recently discovered she was eligible for Medicaid coverage.
(4) The presence of a few key residues in the amino-terminal alpha-helix of each ligand is sufficient to confer specificity to the interaction.
(5) The key warning from the Fed chair A summary of Bernanke's hearing Earlier... MPs in London quizzed the Bank of England on Libor.
(6) "Seller reports are key to identifying bad buyers and ridding them from our marketplace," says eBay.
(7) It is suggested that the low-density lipoprotein receptors in human fetal liver may play a key role in the regulation of the serum cholesterol levels during gestation.
(8) A key component of a career program should be recognition of a nurse's needs and the program should be evaluated to determine if these needs are met.
(9) As novel antibody therapeutics are developed for different malignancies and require evaluation with cells previously uncharacterized as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) targets, efficient description of key parameters of the assay system expedites the preclinical assessment.
(10) Meanwhile, Hunt has been accused of backtracking on a key recommendation in the official report into Mid Staffs.
(11) The safe motherhood initiative demands an intersectoral, collaborative approach to gynecology, family planning, and child health in which midwifery is the key element.
(12) Acetylcholinesterase is a key enzyme in cholinergic neurotransmission for hydrolyzing acetylcholine and has been shown to possess arylacylamidase activity in addition to esterase activity.
(13) If Lagarde had been placed under formal investigation in the Tapie case, it would have risked weakening her position and further embarrassing both the IMF and France by heaping more judicial worries on a key figure on the international stage.
(14) Four goals, four assists, and constant movement have been a key part of the team’s success.
(15) Mechanosensitive ion channels may play a key role in transducing vascular smooth muscle (VSM) stretch into active force development.
(16) But Abaaoud, the man thought to be a key planner for the group behind the Paris attacks, boasted to a niece that he had brought around 90 militants back to Europe with him.
(17) Key therapeutic questions are whether beta-lactams can safely replace aminoglycosides for the treatment of gram-negative pneumonia, and whether monotherapy or aminoglycoside and beta-lactam combination antibiotic treatment is superior.
(18) Teaching procedures then establish and build these key components to fluency.
(19) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
(20) The Lords will vote on three key amendments: • To exclude child benefit from the cap calculation (this would roughly halve the number of households affected).
Shaft
Definition:
(n.) The slender, smooth stem of an arrow; hence, an arrow.
(n.) The long handle of a spear or similar weapon; hence, the weapon itself; (Fig.) anything regarded as a shaft to be thrown or darted; as, shafts of light.
(n.) That which resembles in some degree the stem or handle of an arrow or a spear; a long, slender part, especially when cylindrical.
(n.) The trunk, stem, or stalk of a plant.
(n.) The stem or midrib of a feather.
(n.) The pole, or tongue, of a vehicle; also, a thill.
(n.) The part of a candlestick which supports its branches.
(n.) The handle or helve of certain tools, instruments, etc., as a hammer, a whip, etc.
(n.) A pole, especially a Maypole.
(n.) The body of a column; the cylindrical pillar between the capital and base (see Illust. of Column). Also, the part of a chimney above the roof. Also, the spire of a steeple.
(n.) A column, an obelisk, or other spire-shaped or columnar monument.
(n.) A rod at the end of a heddle.
(n.) A solid or hollow cylinder or bar, having one or more journals on which it rests and revolves, and intended to carry one or more wheels or other revolving parts and to transmit power or motion; as, the shaft of a steam engine.
(n.) A humming bird (Thaumastura cora) having two of the tail feathers next to the middle ones very long in the male; -- called also cora humming bird.
(n.) A well-like excavation in the earth, perpendicular or nearly so, made for reaching and raising ore, for raising water, etc.
(n.) A long passage for the admission or outlet of air; an air shaft.
(n.) The chamber of a blast furnace.
Example Sentences:
(1) By means of computed tomography (CT) values related to bone density and mass were assessed in the femoral head, neck, trochanter, shaft, and condyles.
(2) In contrast, the ryanodine receptor is observed in dendritic shafts, but not in the spines.
(3) Five cases of mycetoma of bone involving patella, shaft of tibia, medial malleolus, calcaneum and phalanx of great toe are presented.
(4) Since 1984, 16 children (mean age 10.3 years) have had stabilization of their femoral shaft fractures by external fixation (Monofixateur) in the Trauma Department of the Hannover Medical School.
(5) The fractures were localized as follows: 7 in the proximal, 7 in the middle, 1 in the distal third of the shaft, 5 subtrochanteric, 1 supracondylar.
(6) Normal neck-shaft angle accounted to 53.1% in the traction group.
(7) Operative treatment was used 22 times (5 sesamoid fractures, 5 midtibial fractures, 5 metatarsal V base fractures, 3 tarsal navicular fractures, 3 olecranon fractures, and 1 proximal tibial shaft fracture).
(8) Twenty-five patients with aseptic nonunion of the humeral shaft, treated by a combined therapeutic procedure, are reported.
(9) The tanycyte shafts extended from the floor of the fourth ventricle into the bundle, and often ran the entire length of the bundle, where they intertwined themselves among neurons and dendrites of the medullary raphe nuclei.
(10) We successfully applied it in the treatment of eight fractures of the shafts of the femur or tibia which would not unite because of infection, soft tissue interposition or gross incongruity of fragments.
(11) The tibial shafts of OVX rats compared to SHAM controls showed elevated periosteal mineral apposition rate and endocortical bone formation parameters.
(12) Mid-shaft sections of 100% silicone (Bardex) and hydrogel-coated latex (Biocath) catheters were subjected to controlled in vitro encrustation conditions for periods of up to 18 weeks.
(13) The filaments are tightly joined together along their shafts for about 30 nm but they separate at both ends for about 10 nm before contacting the external surface of the plasma membrane.
(14) In the original exchange, Scudamore warned Nick West, a City lawyer who works with the Premier League on broadcasting deals, to keep a female colleague they nicknamed Edna “off your shaft”.
(15) The sequential examination of the hair shaft allows an assessment of the chloroquine amount taken over time, the individual dosage, the initiation and termination of therapy.
(16) The long axis of the femoral shaft was, however, not shown to be a source of substantial error.
(17) In the good old days the judges looked the other way when radicals were shafted, shocking bail conditions imposed and foreigners unceremoniously thrown out.
(18) We therefore performed an investigation to find whether application of bone cement to the femur caused histamine release in elective hip surgery, and, independently of this, also investigated whether premedication with H1- + H2-antagonists had any effect on the cardiovascular reactions due to bone cement implantation into the femoral shaft in elderly patients with hip fracture.
(19) Of the 21 cement-free shaft implantations, 3 had to be replaced, the average age of these patients being 42.9 years.
(20) As compared to the mean values of normal gravity controls, centrifuged dogs showed no differences in femur length; cross-sectional area, outer and inner radii at mid-shaft of the femur; dry weights of the biceps femoris, quadriceps femoris, and gastrocnemius muscles.