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VISCOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having the sticky properties of an adhesive
Synonyms:
gluey; glutinous; gummy; mucilaginous; pasty; sticky; viscid; viscous
Classified under:
Similar:
adhesive (tending to adhere)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having a relatively high resistance to flow
Synonyms:
syrupy; viscous
Classified under:
Similar:
thick (relatively dense in consistency)
Derivation:
viscosity; viscousness (resistance of a liquid to shear forces (and hence to flow))
Context examples:
A sweet and viscous fluid produced by honey bees from flower nectar and other plant fluids.
(Honey, NCI Thesaurus)
During osteoarthritis, synovial fluid becomes less viscous and these inflammatory substances come into direct contact with sensory nerve cells in the joint, producing the sensation of pain.
(Joint lubricating fluid plays key role in osteoarthritic pain, University of Cambridge)
The clear viscous liquid produced by the bulbourethral (Cowper) gland that lubricates the urethra in preparation for the passage of sperm.
(Bulbourethral Gland Secretion, NCI Thesaurus)
A viscous, oral hydrogel rinse intended for the management of oral mucositis/stomatitis.
(Mucoadhesive Oral Wound Rinse, NCI Thesaurus)
An oral suspension of viscous lidocaine, diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and aluminum and magnesium hydroxides (Maalox).
(Lidobenalox, NCI Thesaurus)
Using microprocessor manufacturing techniques, the chambers can be built to recreate the three-dimensional shapes of critical organ parts and the tight spaces that mimic the way viscous, bodily fluids normally flow around the cells.
(Researchers begin recreating human spinal cords on a chip, National Institutes of Health)
Administrated through inhalation of the nebulized solution, dornase alpha catalyzes DNA degradation in viscous airway secretions, which may render airway secretions less viscous, thus promoting the clearing of airway mucous plugging and improvement in pulmonary function.
(Dornase alfa inhalation solution, NCI Thesaurus)
Magma located under areas that include the Yellowstone region and the western margin of North and South America can erupt violently, spewing vast quantities of ash into the air, followed by slower flows of glassy, viscous magma.
(Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone may have been more active in the past, NSF)
Sometimes they would fix upon my nose, or forehead, where they stung me to the quick, smelling very offensively; and I could easily trace that viscous matter, which, our naturalists tell us, enables those creatures to walk with their feet upwards upon a ceiling.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Having thus, amid a general titter, played very prettily with his interrupter, the lecturer went back to his picture of the past, the drying of the seas, the emergence of the sand-bank, the sluggish, viscous life which lay upon their margins, the overcrowded lagoons, the tendency of the sea creatures to take refuge upon the mud-flats, the abundance of food awaiting them, their consequent enormous growth.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
