Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A clear, watery, sometimes faintly yellowish fluid derived from body tissues that contains white blood cells and circulates throughout the lymphatic system, returning to the venous bloodstream through the thoracic duct. Lymph acts to remove bacteria and certain proteins from the tissues, transport fat from the small intestine, and supply mature lymphocytes to the blood.
  • noun Archaic A spring or stream of pure, clear water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any antitoxic serum, as vaccine virus.
  • noun Pure, clear water, or any fluid similarly transparent.
  • noun In physiology, a fluid in animal bodies, contained in certain vessels called lymphatics.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A spring of water; hence, water, or a pure, transparent liquid like water.
  • noun (Anat.) An alkaline colorless fluid, contained in the lymphatic vessels, coagulable like blood, but free from red blood corpuscles. It is absorbed from the various tissues and organs of the body, and is finally discharged by the thoracic and right lymphatic ducts into the great veins near the heart.
  • noun (Med.) A fibrinous material exuded from the blood vessels in inflammation. In the process of healing it is either absorbed, or is converted into connective tissue binding the inflamed surfaces together.
  • noun (Physiol. Chem.) A fluid containing certain products resulting from the growth of specific microorganisms upon some culture medium, and supposed to be possessed of curative properties.
  • noun (Anat.) finely granular nucleated cells, identical with the colorless blood corpuscles, present in the lymph and chyle.
  • noun (Anat.) a lymphatic.
  • noun See Note under Heart, n., 1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physiology, immunology A colourless, watery, bodily fluid carried by the lymphatic system, that consists mainly of white blood cells.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a thin coagulable fluid (similar to plasma but) containing white blood cells (lymphocytes) and chyle; is conveyed to the blood stream by lymphatic vessels

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin lympha, water nymph, from Greek numphē, young bride, water nymph.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin lympha ("water, water nymph"), from Ancient Greek νύμφη ("nymph") (English nymph), of unknown origin.

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  • To walk with a lisp. --Mensa word list winner 2006

    March 2, 2007