(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).
Wedge
Definition:
(n.) A piece of metal, or other hard material, thick at one end, and tapering to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical.
(n.) A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
(n.) A mass of metal, especially when of a wedgelike form.
(n.) Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of troops drawn up in such a form.
(n.) The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos; -- so called after a person (Wedgewood) who occupied this position on the first list of 1828.
(v. t.) To cleave or separate with a wedge or wedges, or as with a wedge; to rive.
(v. t.) To force or drive as a wedge is driven.
(v. t.) To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way.
(v. t.) To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the manner of a wedge that is driven into something.
(v. t.) To fasten with a wedge, or with wedges; as, to wedge a scythe on the snath; to wedge a rail or a piece of timber in its place.
(v. t.) To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses, and work by dashing together, in order to expel air bubbles, etc.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is suggested that the normal cyclical release of LH is inhibited in PCO disease by a negative feedback by androgens to the hypothalamus or the pituitary, and that wedge resection should be reserved for patients in whom other forms of treatment have failed.
(2) An opening wedge osteotomy is then directed posterior-dorsal to anterior-plantar, to effectively plantarflex the posterior aspect of the calcaneus.
(3) Lisinopril increases cardiac output, and decreases pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and mean arterial pressure in patients with congestive heart failure refractory to conventional treatment with digitalis and diuretics.
(4) It was then determined whether reducing the PA wedge pressure during exercise with prazosin (9 patients) or dobutamine (6 patients) reduced ventilatory levels toward normal.
(5) He elaborates: "Republicans use powerful economic wedge issues to great impact.
(6) The method described uses film DOT-I and DOT-II by Dupont, whereby the exposure of the step wedge takes place on a linear accelerator with a photo energy of 10 MeV.
(7) Indirect methods to evaluate left ventricular function included the use of the Swan-Ganz catheter for pulmonary capillary wedge pressure measurement, systolic time intervals, and cardiac output.
(8) We performed carinal reconstruction in eight patients, sleeve pneumonectomy in eight patients and wedge pneumonectomy in one.
(9) The mitral valve area was less than 1 cm2 in 61%, the wedge pressure over 25 mmHg in 59% and the pulmonary artery systolic pressure over 50 mmHg in 59%.
(10) Lungs were evaluated for the presence of wedge-shaped pleural-based densities and for the presence of an associated vascular sign.
(11) The isodose curves exhibited the desired wedge angles over the range of field sizes from 5 x 5 to 15 x 40 cm.
(12) This is contradicted, however, by maintained blood pressure and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, increased cardiac output, and reduced peripheral resistance.
(13) Early complications included disc entrapment against the ventricular wall in three cases, wedging of chorda between disc and valve rim in two and posterior perforation of the left ventricle in three patients.
(14) Meanwhile, among hepatic and systemic hemodynamics, wedged hepatic venous pressure, hepatic venous pressure gradient, free hepatic venous pressure, cardiac index, systolic blood pressure, systemic vascular resistance, and stroke volume were found to have changed significantly after tilting.
(15) Cardiac disorders being usually concomitant with this syndrome (interventricular leak, pulmonary arterial wedge stenosis etc.)
(16) As an initial feasibility study of computer-controlled radiation therapy, its application to produce wedge-shaped dose distributions by moving the collimator jaws has been evaluated.
(17) Five shoulders had a posterior opening-wedge osteotomy of the scapular neck to correct the excessive retroversion of the glenoid cavity.
(18) The results showed a satisfactory inter- and intraobserver agreement for wedge (Kappa = 0.72 and 0.90) and compression fractures (Kappa = 0.60 and 0.92).
(19) Among 28 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with increasing dyspnea, the resting mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure was elevated (greater than 12mm Hg) in 4 and became abnormal with exercise in 3 other subjects.
(20) After induction of spinal anaesthesia the mean arterial pressure, right atrial pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and systemic vascular resistance were significantly reduced.