siphon

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A pipe or tube fashioned or deployed in an inverted U shape and filled until atmospheric pressure is sufficient to force a liquid from a reservoir in one end of the tube over a barrier higher than the reservoir and out the other end.
2. n. Zoology A tubular organ, especially of aquatic invertebrates such as squids or clams, by which water is taken in or expelled.
3. v. To draw off or convey through or as if through a siphon.
4. v. To pass through a siphon.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A bent pipe or tube with legs of unequal length, used for drawing liquid out of a vessel by causing it to rise in the tube over the rim or top. For this purpose the shorter leg is inserted in the liquid, and the air is exhausted by being drawn through the longer leg. The liquid then rises by the pressure of the atmosphere and fills the tube, and the flow begins from the lower end. Sometimes an exhausting-tube (a in the figure) is placed on the longer leg; the air, in that case, is sucked out through a till the tube is filled to the cock b, which is then opened, and the flow commences—the cock b being so constructed as to close the suction-tube when the siphon is running. But the more general method is to fill the tube in the first place with the liquid, and then, stopping the mouth of the longer leg, to insert the shorter leg in the vessel; upon removal of the stop, the liquid will immediately begin to run. The flow depends upon the difference in vertical height of the two columns of the liquid, measured respectively from the bend of the tube to the level of the water in the vessel and to the open end of the tube. The flow ceases as soon as, by the lowering of the level in the vessel, these columns become of equal height, or when this level descends to the end of the shorter leg. The atmospheric pressure is essential to support the column of liquid from the vessel up to the top of the bend of the tube, and this height is consequently limited, varying inversely with the density of the liquid. At sea-level the maximum height is a little less than 30 inches for mercury and 34 feet for water.
2. n. In zoology, a canal or conduit, without reference to size, shape, or function; generally, a tube or tubular organ through which water or other fluid passes; a siphuncle. Specifically- In Mollusca:
3. n. [capitalized] [NL.] In conchology, a genus of gastropods. Also Sipho (Klein, 1753; Fabricius, 1822) and Sypho (Brown, 1827).
4. n. In botany, one of the small peculiar cells surrounding the large elongated central cell in the frond of certain florideous algae. See monosiphonous, polysiphonous, Polysiphonia, pericentral.
5. n. A siphon-bottle.
6. To convey, as water, by means of a siphon; transmit or remove by a siphon.
7. To pass or be conducted through a siphon.
8. n. A tubular anal organ of the aquatic bugs of the family Nepidæ, probably respiratory in function.
9. n. In siphonophorans, a feeding zoöid or hydranth.

Wiktionary

1. n. A bent pipe or tube with one end lower than the other, in which hydrostatic pressure exerted due to the force of gravity moves liquid from one reservoir to another.
2. n. a soda siphon
3. n. biology a tubelike organ found in animals or elongated cell found in plants.
4. v. transitive to transfer (liquid) by means of a siphon.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A device, consisting of a pipe or tube bent so as to form two branches or legs of unequal length, by which a liquid can be transferred to a lower level, as from one vessel to another, over an intermediate elevation, by the action of the pressure of the atmosphere in forcing the liquid up the shorter branch of the pipe immersed in it, while the continued excess of weight of the liquid in the longer branch (when once filled) causes a continuous flow. The flow takes place only when the discharging extremity of the pipe ia lower than the higher liquid surface, and when no part of the pipe is higher above the surface than the same liquid will rise by atmospheric pressure; that is, about 33 feet for water, and 30 inches for mercury, near the sea level.
2. n. One of the tubes or folds of the mantle border of a bivalve or gastropod mollusk by which water is conducted into the gill cavity. See Illust. under Mya, and Lamellibranchiata.
3. n. The anterior prolongation of the margin of any gastropod shell for the protection of the soft siphon.
4. n. The tubular organ through which water is ejected from the gill cavity of a cephaloid. It serves as a locomotive organ, by guiding and confining the jet of water. Called also siphuncle. See Illust. under Loligo, and Dibranchiata.
5. n. The siphuncle of a cephalopod shell.
6. n. The sucking proboscis of certain parasitic insects and crustaceans.
7. n. A sproutlike prolongation in front of the mouth of many gephyreans.
8. n. A tubular organ connected both with the esophagus and the intestine of certain sea urchins and annelids.
9. n. A siphon bottle.
10. v. (Chem.) To convey, or draw off, by means of a siphon, as a liquid from one vessel to another at a lower level.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. move a liquid from one container into another by means of a siphon or a siphoning action
2. n. a tube running from the liquid in a vessel to a lower level outside the vessel so that atmospheric pressure forces the liquid through the tube
3. v. convey, draw off, or empty by or as if by a siphon
4. n. a tubular organ in an aquatic animal (especially in mollusks) through which water can be taken in or expelled