resistance : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: resistance	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for resistance
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
resistance n the action of opposing something that you disapprove or disagree with; "he encountered a general feeling of resistance from many citizens"; "despite opposition from the newspapers he went ahead" Synonym(s): resistance, opposition any mechanical force that tends to retard or oppose motion a material's opposition to the flow of electric current; measured in ohms Synonym(s): electric resistance, electrical resistance, impedance, resistance, resistivity, ohmic resistance the military action of resisting the enemy's advance; "the enemy offered little resistance" (medicine) the condition in which an organism can resist disease Synonym(s): immunity, resistance the capacity of an organism to defend itself against harmful environmental agents; "these trees are widely planted because of their resistance to salt and smog" a secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force Synonym(s): underground, resistance the degree of unresponsiveness of a disease-causing microorganism to antibiotics or other drugs (as in penicillin-resistant bacteria) (psychiatry) an unwillingness to bring repressed feelings into conscious awareness an electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current Synonym(s): resistor, resistance group action in opposition to those in power
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Resistance \Resist"ance\ (-ans), n. [F. r[82]sistance, LL. resistentia, fr. resistens, - entis, p. pr. See {Resist}.] 1. The act of resisting; opposition, passive or active. When King Demetrius saw that . . . no resistance* was made against him, he sent away all his forces. --1. Macc. xi. 38. 2. (Physics) The quality of not yielding to force or external pressure; that power of a body which acts in opposition to the impulse or pressure of another, or which prevents the effect of another power; as, the resistance of the air to a body passing through it; the resistance of a target to projectiles. 3. A means or method of resisting; that which resists. Unfold to us some warlike resistance. --Shak. 4. (Elec.) A certain hindrance or opposition to the passage of an electrical current or discharge offered by conducting bodies. It bears an inverse relation to the conductivity, -- good conductors having a small resistance, while poor conductors or insulators have a very high resistance. The unit of resistance is the ohm. {Resistance box} (Elec.), a rheostat consisting of a box or case containing a number of resistance coils of standard values so arranged that they can be combined in various ways to afford more or less resistance. {Resistance coil} (Elec.), a coil of wire introduced into an electric circuit to increase the resistance. {Solid of least resistance} (Mech.), a solid of such a form as to experience, in moving in a fluid, less resistance than any other solid having the same base, height, and volume.