colloid

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Chemistry A system in which finely divided particles, which are approximately 10 to 10,000 angstroms in size, are dispersed within a continuous medium in a manner that prevents them from being filtered easily or settled rapidly.
2. n. Chemistry The particulate matter so dispersed.
3. n. Physiology The gelatinous product of the thyroid gland, consisting mainly of thyroglobulin, which serves as the precursor and storage form of thyroid hormone.
4. n. Pathology Gelatinous material resulting from colloid degeneration in diseased tissue.
5. adj. Of, relating to, containing, or having the nature of a colloid.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Like glue or jelly. Specifically— In chem., semi-solid, penetrable, slowly diffusible, and non-crystalline. See II.
2. In geology, partly amorphous: applied to minerals.
3. n. A substance in a peculiar state of aggregation characterized by slow diffusibility, permeability by crystalloid solutions, etc. See extract.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Glue-like.
2. n. chemistry A stable system of two phases, one of which is dispersed in the other in the form of very small droplets or particles.
3. n. meteorology An intimate mixture of two substances one of which, called the dispersed phase (or colloid), is uniformly distributed in a finely divided state throughout the second substance, called the dispersion medium (or dispersing medium). The dispersion medium may be a gas, a liquid, or a solid, and the dispersed phase may also be any of these, with the exception that one does not speak of a colloidal system of one gas in another. A system of liquid or solid particles colloidally dispersed in a gas is called an aerosol. A system of solid substances or water-insoluble liquids colloidally dispersed in liquid water is called a hydrosol.
4. n. geology A particle less than 1 micron in diameter, following the Wentworth scale

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Resembling glue or jelly; characterized by a jellylike appearance; gelatinous.
2. n. (Physiol. Chem.) A substance (as albumin, gum, gelatin, etc.) which is of a gelatinous rather than a crystalline nature, and which diffuses itself through animal membranes or vegetable parchment more slowly than crystalloids do; -- opposed to crystalloid.
3. n. (Med.) A gelatinous substance found in colloid degeneration and colloid cancer.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a mixture with properties between those of a solution and fine suspension