serosity
(sɪˈrɒsɪtɪ)
[ad. F. sérosité (16th c.) or mod.L. serōsitās, f. serōsus serose.]
1. Watery fluid in an animal body; the serous or watery part of blood or milk, serum; freq. pl. in 17–18th c. = watery humours.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. Catal. Words Art, Serosities, or Serous humours, bee the thinner parts of the masse of bloud, answering to the whey in milke. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. iii. 110 The salt and lixiviated serosity with some portion of choler, is divided betweene the guts and bladder. 1685 J. Chamberlayne Coffee, Tea, & Chocolate 66 The Cheese, which hinders and stops the flux of the Belly, the serosity or Cream which is purgative. 1753 N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat 16 From the two Nostrils there dropt a very sharp and corrosive Serosity (i.e. Ichor). 1771 T. Percival Ess. (1777) I. 243 By the seasonable discharge of the serosities, the fever..is..moderated. 1834 J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 107 A bloody serosity. 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 216 The lateral ventricles..become distended with serosity (acute hydrocephalus). 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 481 The eruption consists of papules infiltrated with serosity. |
b. A yellowish alkaline liquid produced when serum is heated.
| 1807 J. Murray Syst. Chem. IV. 531 If the coagulated mixture, obtained by the action of heat on serum, be gently pressed, there flows from it a liquor somewhat turbid, named the Serosity. 1836 Brande Chem. 1137. |
2. The condition of being serous. rare.
| 1743 tr. Heister's Surg. 232 The too great Serosity or Viscidity of the Blood. 1834 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 365 The mass of the blood..is too copiously dissolved into a state of serosity. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases xii. 207 Deficient serosity of the blood from excessive sweating. |