uniaxial, a.
(juːnɪˈæksɪəl)
[f. uni- 1 + axial a.]
1. Optics and Cryst. Having one optical axis.
| 1827–8 Herschel in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) IV. 520 When the two axes coalesce, or the crystal becomes uniaxial, the lemniscates become circles. a 1853 Pereira Polarized Light (1854) 176 The crystal possesses the singular property of being uniaxial for violet light and biaxial for red. 1888 Rutley Rock-Forming Min. 37 Uniaxial crystals. |
2. Bot. and Zool. = monaxial a.
| 1879 Rossiter Dict. Sci., Uniaxial development: in all vertebrate animals, some molluscs and annulosa; in some of exogens, endogens, algæ, and fungi. |
3. Characterized by one axis of alignment or action.
| 1965 E. B. Atkinson in P. D. Ritchie Physics of Plastics v. 250 The cube is subjected to a simple tensile stress normal to the x faces,..i.e. a state of simple uniaxial tension exists. 1969 W. R. R. Park Plastics Film Technol. ii. 28 Uniaxial orientation takes place during the drawing of a filament. Here the polymer chains are aligned in one direction. 1982 Jrnl. de Physique: Lettres XLIII. 585 The dynamics of an amorphous polystyrene..melt is studied..during stress relaxation following a uniaxial deformation. |
Hence uniˈaxially adv.
| 1909 in Webster. 1969 Jrnl. Appl. Physics XL. 1301 The coercive force for a pair of identical interacting uniaxially anisotropic dipoles of arbitrary bond angle is calculated. 1979 Nature 15 Mar. 222/2 The entire assembly would then be hot-pressed, either uniaxially or isostatically, at a temperature of 1,200–1,300°C. |