cryogenic, a.
(kraɪəʊˈdʒɛnɪk)
[f. cryogen + -ic.]
Of or pertaining to the production or use of very low temperatures.
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 287 Within recent years several special cryogenic laboratories have been established. 1933 Discovery Mar. 70/1 The ultimate liquid of all low-temperature or ‘cryogenic’ work—liquid helium. 1960 Aeroplane XCVIII. 643/1 A frictionless spinning element as in the cryogenic gyro. 1960 Guardian 15 June 6/2 My husband earns his living as a cryogenic physicist. 1962 I. S. Cooper in Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. CLXXXI. 600/1 The technique of cryogenic surgery consists of first applying moderate cold to identify the locus of abnormal neural activity and then intense cold to make a circumscribed lesion there. 1967 Technology Week 20 Feb. 27 (Advt.), Flight simulation, high energy fuels, system design,..and fabrication of cryogenic support equipment are only a few of the advanced aerospace research..activities currently in progress. |
Hence cryoˈgenics, that branch of physics which deals with the production of very low temperatures and their effects on matter.
| 1958 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 2 Oct. 81/2 Research into He3 Cryogenics being carried out in the Clarendon Laboratory. 1962 [see cryobiology s.v. cryo-]. |
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▸ cryogenically adv. by cryogenic means.
| 1961 Science 20 Oct. 1184/3 This gas is awkward to store, either *cryogenically or as a compressed gas. 1992 Vanity Fair Feb. 84/3 When Arnold died, his grieving master had him cryogenically frozen and brought him home..and interred him in the freezer. 2003 Pop. Sci. May 102 WIRE was designed to study galaxies with a cryogenically cooled infrared telescope. |