Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

mantid

(Encyclopedia)mantid or mantis, name applied to the large, slender, slow-moving, winged insects of the family Mantidae in the order Mantodea. Predatory insects, mantids have strong, elongate, spiny front legs, used...

herpes simplex

(Encyclopedia)herpes simplex hûrˈpēz [key], an acute viral infection of the skin characterized by one or more painful, itching blisters filled with clear fluid. It is caused by either of two herpes simplex virus...

Hirst, Damien Steven

(Encyclopedia)Hirst, Damien Steven, 1965–, British artist-provacateur, b. Bristol. While at Goldsmiths College, London (grad. 1988), he organized the exhibition Freeze, whose participants, led by Hirst, became kn...

Hoffa, Jimmy

(Encyclopedia)Hoffa, Jimmy (James Riddle Hoffa) hôfˈə [key], 1913–75?, U.S. labor leader, b. Brazil, Indiana. As a young warehouseman he organized (1932) a union that was admitted two years later into the Team...

Flynn, Michael Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Flynn, Michael Thomas, 1958–, U.S. military officer and government official, b. Middletown, R.I., Univ. of Rhode Island (B.S., 1981). Commissioned as ...

German Confederation

(Encyclopedia)CE5 German Confederation (1815) German Confederation, 1815–66, union of German states provided for at the Congress of Vienna to replace the old Holy Roman Empire, which had been destroyed during...

executive order

(Encyclopedia)executive order, in the United States, official document initiated and signed by the president containing directives concerning how the executive branch shall carry out its responsibilities under the ...

executors and administrators

(Encyclopedia)executors and administrators. An executor is the person designated in the will of a deceased person to carry out the provisions of the will. An administrator is the person appointed by a probate court...

gear

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of gears gear, toothed wheel, cylinder, or cone that transmits motion from one part of a machine to another; it is one of the oldest means of transmitting motion. When the teeth of two g...

blood bank

(Encyclopedia)blood bank, site or mobile unit for collecting, processing, typing, and storing whole blood, blood plasma and other blood constituents. Most hospitals maintain their own blood reserves, and the Americ...