Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various aerobic bacteria of the genus Spirillum, having an elongated spiral form and bearing a tuft of flagella.
- n. Any of various other spiral-shaped microorganisms.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A genus or form-genus of Schizomycetes or bacteria, having cylindrical or somewhat compressed spirally twisted cells. They are rigid and furnished at each end with a cilium, and multiply by transverse division, the parts soon separating from one another. This genus, which according to some authorities also embraces the genus known as Vibrio, contains many species, found in swamp-water, salt water, infusions, etc. See
Schizomycetes . - n. A bacterium of the genus Spirillum.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various aerobic bacteria of the genus Spirillum, having an elongated spiral form and bearing a tuft of flagella.
- n. Any of various other spiral-shaped microorganisms.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Biol.) A genus of common motile microörganisms (Spirobacteria) having the form of spiral-shaped filaments. One species is said to be the cause of relapsing fever.
WordNet 3.0
- n. spirally twisted elongate rodlike bacteria usually living in stagnant water
- n. any flagellated aerobic bacteria having a spirally twisted rodlike form
Etymologies
- New Latin Spīrillum, genus name, diminutive of Latin spīra, coil; see spire2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“On the opposing spread there are photos of crackling staphylococcus aureus, zig-zaggy leptospira, pickle-like vibrio, frightening spirillum volutans, a decaying tree, a microscope, and . . . wait for it . . . a bighorn sheep.”
“But a resting state of the comma bacilli has never been met with -- a very exceptional thing in the case of bacilli, and another reason why the organism must be regarded rather as a spirillum than a bacillus, for the spirilla require only a fluid medium, and do not, like the anthrax bacilli, thrive in a dry state.”
“On account of this developmental change, he doubted if the cholera organism should be ranked with bacilli; it is rather a transitional form between the bacillus and the spirillum.”
“Possibly it is a true spirillum, portions of which appear in the comma shape, much as in other spirilla -- _e. g_., spirilla undula, which do not always form complete spirals, but consist only of more or less curved rods.”
“In some way," he replied quickly, "they have become infected by the bite of an African tick which carries spirillum fever.”
“Then, with his assistant, he put on his white robes, mask, gloves and other precautions for asepsis, setting out the apparatus for the intravenous administration of the drug that would kill the spirillum.”
“There can be no question that he saw them, for we can recognize in his descriptions of these various forms of little ` ` animals '' the four principal forms of microbes -- the long and short rods of bacilli and bacteria, the spheres of micrococci, and the corkscrew spirillum.”
A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume II: The Beginnings of Modern Science
“a connection between the presence of bacillus spirillum and relapsing fever; and Mr. Talamon claiming to have discovered that diphtheria was due to an organism by means of which the virus could be conveyed from human beings to animals, and _vice versa_.”
“a clearly defined _spirillum_, the _Treponema pallida_ of Schaudinn.”
“These are spherical, elongated, and spiral, and to these different types are given the names, respectively, _coccus_, _bacillus_ and _spirillum_ (plural,”
Outlines of Dairy Bacteriology, 8th edition A Concise Manual for the Use of Students in Dairying
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concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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