valve

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Anatomy A membranous structure in a hollow organ or passage, as in an artery or vein, that folds or closes to prevent the return flow of the body fluid passing through it.
2. n. Any of various devices that regulate the flow of gases, liquids, or loose materials through piping or through apertures by opening, closing, or obstructing ports or passageways.
3. n. The movable control element of such a device.
4. n. Music A device in a brass wind instrument that permits change in pitch by a rapid varying of the air column in a tube.
5. n. Biology One of the paired, hinged shells of certain mollusks and of brachiopods.
6. n. Biology One of the two silicified halves of the cell wall of a diatom.
7. n. Biology The entire, one-piece shell of a snail and certain other mollusks.
8. n. Botany One of the sections into which the wall of a seedpod or other dehiscent fruit splits.
9. n. Botany A lidlike covering of an anther.
10. n. Chiefly British An electron tube or a vacuum tube.
11. n. Archaic Either half of a double or folding door.
12. v. To provide with a valve.
13. v. To control by means of a valve.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. metal arcs, especially the mercury arc.
2. n. A lifting-valve in which the contact with the top surface above the opening in the seat has a plane or flat area, as distinguished from one in which a part of the surface of a cone fits into a conical edge in the opening.
3. n. A clack- or flap-valve.
4. n. Specifically, in an internal-combustion motor cylinder, the valve through which the combustible mixture of fuel and air enters, having been previously proportioned by proper mixing apparatus, usually also valves.
5. n. A cylindrical valve, fitting a cylindrical casing, controlling openings or ports made in the cylindrical surface by a rotation of the cylinder around its axis. When the valve is a cone fitting a conical surface it is a plug-valve.
6. n. A valve held shut by a determined force, such as a weight or spring, so that by it the pressure in the duct or passage may be tested.
7. n. apply the brake, and
8. n. release the brake. Its essential elements are a balanced piston, on one side of which is the pressure in the brake-pipe and on the other side the pressure in the auxiliary reservoir; a slide-valve, on top of which is the pressure in the auxiliary reservoir; and a graduating-valve, which opens or closes certain ports in the slide-valve. When charging the system, air from the brake-pipe passes through a feed-groove around the piston of the triple valve and so into the auxiliary reservoir, charging it with compressed air, the slide-valve meanwhile connecting the brake-cylinder to the exhaust port and atmosphere through ports in its face. When the pressure in the brake-pipe falls below that in the auxiliary reservoir, the balance of pressure on the piston is destroyed and the piston moves toward the now lower brake-pipe pressure, carrying with it the graduating- and slide-valves which cut off the auxiliary reservoir from the brake-pipe
9. n. cut off the brake-cylinder from the atmosphere, and
10. n. connect the auxiliary reservoir with the brake-cylinder, thus admitting compressed air to the brake-cylinder, which forces the piston in this cylinder outward, and, through the connecting levers and rods, sets the brake. For any definite reduction in brake-pipe pressure short of the point at which the brake-cylinder and auxiliary reservoir pressures equalize, the increase of brake-cylinder pressure continues until the auxiliary reservoir pressure falls slightly below that remaining in the brake-pipe when the triple-valve piston returns in the direction of the now lower auxiliary reservoir pressure, carrying with it the graduating-valve, until the latter cuts off the flow of air from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake-cylinder, when all communication through the triple valve is closed. When the pressure in the brake-pipe is then increased above that in the auxiliary reservoir sufficiently to overcome the resistance of both the piston and slide-valve, the parts return to their first position, charging the auxiliary reservoir anew and connecting the brake-cylinder to the atmosphere, which releases its charge and allows the release-springs to return its piston with the attached levers, rods, and brake-shoes to their original positions and releasing the shoes from the wheels. Various improved types of triple valves are now in use, providing for differentiating between service and emergency brake-cylinder pressures, for graduating the release of all brakes in the train, for a rapid serial service application of all the brakes in long trains, for uniform releasing and uniform recharging of all the brakes in long trains, and so on.
11. n. One of the leaves of a folding door; in the plural, a folding door.
12. n. Any device or appliance used to control the flow of a liquid, vapor, or gas, or loose material in bulk, through a pipe, passageway, outlet, or inlet, in any form of containing vessel. In this wide and general sense, the term includes air-, gas-, steam-, and water-cocks of any kind, water-gates, air-gates, and keys to musical wind-instruments. Rotary valves are valves in which the leaf, disk, plug, or other device used to close the passage is made to revolve for opening or closing (the common stop-cock being an illustration); lifting-valves are those in which the ball, cone, or other stopper is lifted or raised clear of the valve-seat by pressure (usually that of the gas, steam, or liquid in the pipe) from below, the poppet-, ball-, and safety-valves being examples; hinged valves constitute a large class used in both air- and water-pipes, as the butterfly-valves, clackvalves, and other forms in which the leaf or plate of the valve is fastened on one side to the valve-seat or opening. Springs are sometimes used to keep such valves closed. Sliding valves are those in which the gate or leaf slides aside to open the valve-way, the D-valve and some forms of water- and gas-main valves being examples. The long-hinged valves of a pipe-organ, and the round stoppers operated by keys, as in the flute and other instruments, are called key-valves. The names by which valves are distinguished are often descriptive of the shape or motion of the valves, of their use, or of the method by which they are operated, as globe-valve, screw-valve, blow-through valve, relief-valve, throttle-valve. In a trade sense, valves appear to be distinguished from cocks. A cock is a small plug-valve operated by hand. Other valves moved by screws or levers, or operated by power through some machinery, all self-acting appliances, and all large or complicated gates, stoppers, or cocks, are called valves. The universal use of steam, gas, and water has led to the invention of a great variety of valves. Iu musical wind-instruments of the trumpet class, the valve is a device for changing the direction and length of the air-column so as to alter the pitch of the tone. The two forms most in use are the piston and the rotary valve—the former being a perforated plunger working in a cylindrical case, and the latter a four-way cock, both being operated by the fingers of the player's right baud. The result of using a valve is to add to the main tube of the instrument a supplementary tube or crook of such length that the proper tone of the whole is lowered by some definite interval. The number of valves is commonly three, the first lowering the fundamental tone a whole step (and all its harmonics proportionally), the second lowering it a half-step, and the third a step and a half. A fourth valve is sometimes added on large instruments, lowering the pitch two steps and a half; and five and six valves have occasionally been tried. Two or more valves are used simultaneously with combined effect. Valves are more or less demanded to compensate for the incompleteness of the scale of all instruments of this family, and to provide for rapid changes of tonality. They are also useful in particular cases to remedy the inaccuracy for concerted music of certain of the regular harmonic series of tones. Their extended application has greatly developed the capacity of all kinds of brass instruments for rapid and unrestricted execution. But on the other hand valves and supplementary crooks cannot always give exactly accurate intonation, and the angles which they more or less necessitate in the air-column tend to injure the purity of the tones. Various compensations for these drawbacks have been attempted, with some success; but valve-instruments are still seldom used in the orchestra, while they arc numerous in military bands. See piston, 2, and compare key, 4 . See cuts under back-pressure, ball-cock, conical, organ, reed-organ, twin-valve, slide-valve, steam-engine, safety-valve.
13. n. In anatomy and zoology, a membranous part, fold, or thin layer which resembles a valve, or actually serves as a valve in connection with the flow of blood, lymph, or other fluid; a valva or valvular as, the valve of Vieussens in the brain; the connivent valves of Kerkring in the intestine; valves of the heart, of the veins, etc. See cuts under bulb, Crinoidea, heart, lymphatic, and vein.
14. n. In botany, in flowering plants, one of the segments into which a capsule dehisces, or which opens like a lid in the dehiscence of certain anthers. In Diatomaceæ each half of the silicified membrane or shell is called a valve. See cuts under Marsilea, septicidal, and silicle.
15. n. In conchology, one of the two or more separable pieces of which the shell may consist, or the whole shell when it is in one piece; each shell, right and left, of ordinary bivalves, and each shell, dorsal and ventral, of brachiopods. See bivalve, multivalve, univalve, equivalve, inequivalve, and cuts under Caprotinidæ, Chamidæ, integropalliate, and sinupalliate.
16. n. In entomology, a covering plate or sheath of any organ, generally one of a pair of plates which unite to form a tube or vagina, as those covering the external sexual organs, ovipositor, etc.
17. n. Any formation serving to obstruct or close the pyloric orifice of the stomach. A pylorus may have a valvular construction, or a muscular sphincter may surround the orifice. See pylorus, 2 .

Wiktionary

1. n. A device that controls the flow of a gas or fluid through a pipe.
2. n. A device that admits fuel and air into the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, or one that allows combustion gases to exit.
3. n. anatomy One or more membranous partitions, flaps, or folds, which permit the passage of the contents of a vessel or cavity in one direction, but stop or retard the flow in the opposite direction; as, the ileocolic, mitral, and semilunar valves.
4. n. UK A vacuum tube.
5. n. botany One of the pieces into which certain fruits naturally separate when they dehisce.
6. n. botany A small portion of certain anthers, which opens like a trapdoor to allow the pollen to escape, as in the barberry.
7. n. biology One of the pieces or divisions of bivalve or multivalve shells.
8. n. biology One of the two similar portions of the shell of a diatom.
9. v. transitive To control (flow) by means of a valve.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A door; especially, one of a pair of folding doors, or one of the leaves of such a door.
2. n. A lid, plug, or cover, applied to an aperture so that by its movement, as by swinging, lifting and falling, sliding, turning, or the like, it will open or close the aperture to permit or prevent passage, as of a fluid.
3. n. (Anat.) One or more membranous partitions, flaps, or folds, which permit the passage of the contents of a vessel or cavity in one direction, but stop or retard the flow in the opposite direction.
4. n. One of the pieces into which a capsule naturally separates when it bursts.
5. n. One of the two similar portions of the shell of a diatom.
6. n. A small portion of certain anthers, which opens like a trapdoor to allow the pollen to escape, as in the barberry.
7. n. (Zoöl.) One of the pieces or divisions of bivalve or multivalve shells.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. one of the paired hinged shells of certain molluscs and of brachiopods
2. n. the entire one-piece shell of a snail and certain other molluscs
3. n. device in a brass wind instrument for varying the length of the air column to alter the pitch of a tone
4. n. a structure in a hollow organ (like the heart) with a flap to insure one-way flow of fluid through it
5. n. control consisting of a mechanical device for controlling the flow of a fluid