AI tools

siphon

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Siphon

English

 siphon on Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle French siphon, from Old French sifon, from Latin sipho, from Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn, “pipe, tube”), of uncertain origin; possibly related to Latin tibia (“pipe, flute of bone”), with the irregular forms suggesting a non-Indo-European loan source, perhaps of the shape *twi-, *twibh.

Pronunciation

Noun

siphon (plural siphons)

  1. 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.
    • 1891, Charles Hilton Fagge, Philip Henry Pye-Smith, Text‐book of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, volume II, page 199:
      The asserted fact that free hydrochloric acid is absent from the fluid removed by a siphon in cases of cancer of the stomach has been lately much discussed in Germany, and Dr Van der Welden, of Strassburg, introduced an alcoholic solution of tropæolin as a test with this object.
  2. A soda siphon.
  3. (zoology) A tubelike organ found in animals or elongated cell found in plants.
    • 1962, Fish Bulletin, numbers 118-130, Department of Fish and Game, page 48:
      As a result, although corbinas commonly utilize mollusks, they are limited to the siphons, foot, or other soft parts that either extend from the shell or can be picked from it.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Welsh: seiffon
  • → Irish: siofón

Translations

Verb

siphon (third-person singular simple present siphons, present participle siphoning, simple past and past participle siphoned)

  1. (transitive) To transfer (liquid) by means of a siphon.
    He used a rubber tube to siphon petrol from the car's fuel tank.
  2. (transitive, by extension) To transfer directly.
    • 2012 Sep, Rupert Christiansen, “Quiet, Please”, in Literary Review:
      Today's teenagers are siphoning dangerous levels of membrane-damaging noise directly into their eardrums, with long-term effects that otologists prophesy will be disastrous for their hearing and lead to an epidemic of middle-aged deafness in the next thirty years.
  3. (transitive, figurative, often with "off") To steal or skim off something, such as money, in small amounts; to embezzle.
    • 2009, Alan Dean Foster, Montezuma Strip, →ISBN:
      In Juchipila power to the whole community of thirty thousand evaporated as the supraheavy grid buried alongside the little mountain cantina siphoned energy from the entire west-central portion of the Namerican national power net.
    • 2010, John Townsend, Now What Do I Do?:
      Attempting to “unfeel” whatever you feel is a huge drain on your energy, and that effort can siphon off the power you need to crunch your problem.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  • Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

Anagrams

French

French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Etymology

From Middle French siphon, from Old French sifon, from Latin sīphō from Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn, “pipe, tube”), of unknown ultimate origin.

Pronunciation

Noun

siphon m (plural siphons)

  1. siphon

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.