infiltration
(ɪnfɪlˈtreɪʃən)
[n. of action from infiltrate v.; perh. a. F. infiltration (16th c.).]
1. The action or process of infiltrating; percolation. a. In Physics and Geol., of water or mineral substances in solution.
| 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 427 The percolation or infiltration of the particles. Ibid. 428 The infiltration of sea-water through lavas. 1822 J. Flint Lett. Amer. 102 The soil is..broken on the surface by funnel-shaped hollows... These inverted cones are evidently excavated by the infiltration of water. 1851–6 Woodward Mollusca 74 The phragmocone..owes its preservation to the infiltration of calc-spar. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. iii. 70 Waters of infiltration always contain less or more of these Salts. |
b. Physiol. and
Path., of fluids (
esp. blood or fat) which penetrate the tissues.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xvii. (1856) 129 The infiltration of fatty matter is rather alarming. 1866 A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 54 Infiltration is a term ordinarily applied to the deposition of some material in or between the tissue-elements. 1874 Van Buren Dis. Genit. Org. 6 Contusions involving the urethra may lead to infiltration of urine. |
c. fig. of immaterial elements or influences, as ideas, opinions, etc.
| 1840 Mill Diss. & Disc. (1859) I. Bentham 374 Principle after principle of those propounded by him is..making its way by infiltration into the understandings most shut against his influence. 1867 ― Inaug. Addr. St. Andrews (People's ed.) 8 Reason..is beginning to find its way by gradual infiltration even into English schools. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. viii. 235 The infiltration of tribal ideas. |
d. The gradual penetration of one people into another.
| 1904 Westm. Gaz. 14 Nov. 5/1 In the interior of the Empire the French work of gradual ‘infiltration’ will proceed by not less efficacious means. 1927 Peake & Fleure Priests & Kings 54 As time went on there seems to have been an ever-increasing infiltration of Southern Steppe⁓folk from the desert. 1930 J. L. Myres Who were the Greeks? ii. 55 The southward infiltration of Albanian and Slav into districts formerly Romanized. |
e. Mil. The gradual or surreptitious penetration of enemy lines by small numbers of troops.
| 1930 Economist 16 Aug. 313/1 They thus succeeded..in reaching the outlying quarters of Peshawar, albeit in small numbers, by a process of nocturnal ‘infiltration’. 1933 B. H. L. Hart Future of Infantry 27 We profited from the lesson taught us by the remarkable success, at our expense, of the new infiltration or soft spot tactics in..1918. 1967 N.Y. Times (Internat. Ed.) 11–12 Feb. 1/6 At a background briefing early in November, the American command made available infiltration figures covering the year through Sept. 30. |
f. fig. (
Cf. infiltrate v. 4.)
| 1940 Economist 15 June 1036/1 The Nazis have developed the technique of infiltration to such a pitch that [etc.]. 1941 Ann. Reg. 1940 209 Great uneasiness was caused in the country by the infiltration..of thousands of able-bodied young Germans in the guise of tourists. 1949 Koestler Promise & Fulfilment ii. v. 281, I wonder whether an American don is the right match for the propaganda and infiltration experts of the Soviet Union. 1958 Times 20 Jan. 5/7 Alleged Communist infiltration into the Oxford branch of the National Union of Railwaymen. 1973 P. Evans Bodyguard Man v. 44 You're an ex-Special Branch man, supposedly a professional at infiltration techniques. |
2. The action of infiltrating a substance with something; the process, fact, or condition of being infiltrated or permeated;
esp. in
Path.| 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 61 Fluids..keep the country in a constant state of infiltration from below upwards. 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 51 Fatty Infiltration—which is often described as ‘fatty degeneration’—consists in the infiltration of the tissues with fat, which is deposited in them from the blood. |
3. An infiltrated deposit.
| a 1812 Kirwan (Webster 1828) Calcareous infiltrations filling the cavities of other stones. 1815 Bakewell Introd. Geol. 21 This he attributes to a calcareous infiltration. 1898 J. Hutchinson Archives Surg. IX. 317 The cells composing the infiltration are round or oval in shape. |
| fig. 1882 Child Ballads i. xv. 179/2 This passage is clearly an infiltration from a different story. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. infiltration anæsthesia, anæsthetization of an area by the injection into it of a local anæsthetic;
infiltration capacity, the maximum rate at which soil in a given condition can absorb water;
infiltration rate, the rate at which soil absorbs water; infiltration capacity.
| 1897 Med. Rec. LI. 44/1 (heading) The method of *infiltration anæsthesia: its technique and..advantages. Ibid. 45/2 Cocaine anæsthesia lasting from two to five minutes, infiltration anæsthesia from fifteen to twenty minutes. 1958 J. H. Burn Lect. Notes Pharmacol. (ed. 5) 56 Lignocaine..is a useful anaesthetic for producing nerve block and for infiltration anaesthesia. |
| 1933 R. E. Horton in Trans. Amer. Geophysical Union XIV. 446 ‘*Infiltration-capacity’ will be used to describe the maximum rate at which rain can be absorbed by a given soil when in a given condition. 1952 Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. XVI. 85/2 The term ‘infiltration capacity’..has been an object of some controversy because it implies that an extensity is involved, whereas an intensity such as infiltration rate would be more apt. |
| 1882 Geikie Text-bk. Geol. ii. ii. 72 The relation..between these *infiltration products and the decomposition of the surrounding mass. |
| 1940 Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. V. 400/2 It is unfortunate that the terms ‘infiltration-capacity’ and ‘*infiltration rates’ have sometimes been confused... There may be an infinite variety of rates but there is only one capacity at a particular time for a particular soil. 1952 Ibid. XVI. 88/1 Infiltration rate (soil). The maximum rate at which soil, in a given condition at a given time, can absorb rain. 1957 Soil Sci. LXXXVII. 338 After infiltration begins, increasing the initial moisture content reduces the infiltration rate. |
| 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., *Infiltration-theory, the theory that a vein was filled by the infiltration of mineral solutions. 1888 Times in Pall Mall G. 1 Oct. 4/1 This infiltration theory had necessarily to come under Mr. Judd's consideration. |