Thesaurus: valve

Related headwords

Definitions

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. 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. 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. One of the pieces or divisions of bivalve or multivalve shells.
8. n. a structure in a hollow organ (like the heart) with a flap to insure one-way flow of fluid through it
9. n. device in a brass wind instrument for varying the length of the air column to alter the pitch of a tone
10. n. control consisting of a mechanical device for controlling the flow of a fluid
11. n. the entire one-piece shell of a snail and certain other molluscs
12. n. one of the paired hinged shells of certain molluscs and of brachiopods