(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).
Switch
Definition:
(n.) A small, flexible twig or rod.
(n.) A movable part of a rail; or of opposite rails, for transferring cars from one track to another.
(n.) A separate mass or trees of hair, or of some substance (at jute) made to resemble hair, worn on the head by women.
(n.) A mechanical device for shifting an electric current to another circuit.
(v. t.) To strike with a switch or small flexible rod; to whip.
(v. t.) To swing or whisk; as, to switch a cane.
(v. t.) To trim, as, a hedge.
(v. t.) To turn from one railway track to another; to transfer by a switch; -- generally with off, from, etc.; as, to switch off a train; to switch a car from one track to another.
(v. t.) To shift to another circuit.
(v. i.) To walk with a jerk.
Example Sentences:
(1) We also demonstrated a significant difference in the Hb switching process between male and female newborns.
(2) Accumulating evidence indicates that for most tumors, the switch to the angiogenic phenotype depends upon the outcome of a balance between angiogenic stimulators and angiogenic inhibitors, both of which may be produced by tumor cells and perhaps by certain host cells.
(3) Nine years of clinical experience of the application of the Q-switched ruby laser to the removal of tattoos is presented.
(4) Males exploit this behavioural switch by increasing their sneaky mating attempts.
(5) It is hypothesized, furthermore, that the kinetics of emergence and loss of these various populations may reflect switching in the mode of immunity being expressed, particularly during the chronic phase of the infection, from that of a state of active immunity to one of immunologic memory.
(6) Police in Rockhampton have ordered residents to leave their homes as electricity is switched off in low-lying areas.
(7) The drug I started taking caused an irritating, chronic cough, which disappeared when I switched to an inexpensive diuretic.
(8) Our aim is to obtain evidence for trans-acting factors that regulate developmental hemoglobin (Hb) switching.
(9) Should such symptoms occur, the doctor has the choice of either switching to another first-step compound or reducing the dose of the first agent and combining it with one of other available drugs.
(10) I’ve warned Dave before to mind his ps and qs when the cameras are rolling, but the problem is you can never tell when the microphones are switched on.
(11) This modification improves the convergence properties of the network and is used to control a switch which activates the learning or template formation process when the input is "unknown".
(12) Usage of analyzing cardiac monitors with a signalling system switched on by the preset values of ST-segment depression prevented the evolution of myocardial ischemia and the development of exercise-induced anginal episodes.
(13) "It's very clear now that the administration agrees with us," said Wyden, hailing a switch from both the Bush and Obama administration stance that "collecting these records is vital to western civilisation".
(14) A programmable controller manages the olfactometer dilution stage selection, the odor stimulus switch and starts the peripheral devices required by the experiment.
(15) In hybrids before the switch, the gamma-genes are unmethylated.
(16) "The default switch should be set to release information unless there is an extremely good reason for withholding it.".
(17) A transistor radio activated by a mercury switch was used to reinforce head posture in two retarded children with severe cerebral palsy.
(18) The swi1+ gene is necessary for effective mating-type (MT) switching in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
(19) Consequently mother cells can switch their mating type whereas bud cells cannot.
(20) Even if nobody switched party, the general election result would look very different to what’s predicted if millennials could be persuaded to vote at the same rate as pensioners, as polls factor in turnout differences and oversample the elderly accordingly.