From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Priory \Pri"o*ry\, n.; pl. Priories. [Cf. LL. prioria. See
Prior, n.]
A religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; --
sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and
called also cell, and obedience. See Cell, 2.
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Note: Of such houses there were two sorts: one where the
prior was chosen by the inmates, and governed as
independently as an abbot in an abbey; the other where
the priory was subordinate to an abbey, and the prior
was placed or displaced at the will of the abbot.
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Alien priory, a small religious house dependent on a large
monastery in some other country.
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Syn: See Cloister.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Cell \Cell\, n. [OF. celle, fr. L. cella; akin to celare to
hide, and E. hell, helm, conceal. Cf. Hall.]
1. A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a
monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit.
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The heroic confessor in his cell. --Macaulay.
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2. A small religious house attached to a monastery or
convent. "Cells or dependent priories." --Milman.
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3. Any small cavity, or hollow place.
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4. (Arch.)
(a) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
(b) Same as Cella.
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5. (Elec.) A jar of vessel, or a division of a compound
vessel, for holding the exciting fluid of a battery.
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6. (Biol.) One of the minute elementary structures, of which
the greater part of the various tissues and organs of
animals and plants are composed.
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Note: All cells have their origin in the primary cell from
which the organism was developed. In the lowest animal
and vegetable forms, one single cell constitutes the
complete individual, such being called unicelluter
orgamisms. A typical cell is composed of a semifluid
mass of protoplasm, more or less granular, generally
containing in its center a nucleus which in turn
frequently contains one or more nucleoli, the whole
being surrounded by a thin membrane, the cell wall. In
some cells, as in those of blood, in the am[oe]ba, and
in embryonic cells (both vegetable and animal), there
is no restricting cell wall, while in some of the
unicelluliar organisms the nucleus is wholly wanting.
See Illust. of Bipolar.
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Air cell. See Air cell.
Cell development (called also cell genesis, {cell
formation}, and cytogenesis), the multiplication, of
cells by a process of reproduction under the following
common forms; segmentation or fission, gemmation or
budding, karyokinesis, and endogenous multiplication. See
Segmentation, Gemmation, etc.
Cell theory. (Biol.) See Cellular theory, under
Cellular.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Cell \Cell\ (s[e^]l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Celled (s[e^]ld).]
To place or inclose in a cell. "Celled under ground." [R.]
--Warner.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
cell
n 1: any small compartment; "the cells of a honeycomb"
2: (biology) the basic structural and functional unit of all
organisms; they may exist as independent units of life (as in
monads) or may form colonies or tissues as in higher plants
and animals
3: a device that delivers an electric current as the result of a
chemical reaction [syn: cell, electric cell]
4: a small unit serving as part of or as the nucleus of a larger
political movement [syn: cell, cadre]
5: a hand-held mobile radiotelephone for use in an area divided
into small sections, each with its own short-range
transmitter/receiver [syn: cellular telephone, {cellular
phone}, cellphone, cell, mobile phone]
6: small room in which a monk or nun lives [syn: cell,
cubicle]
7: a room where a prisoner is kept [syn: cell, jail cell,
prison cell]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
cell
1. <spreadsheet> In a spreadsheet, the intersection of a row
a column and a sheet, the smallest addressable unit of data.
A cell contains either a constant value or a formula that is
used to calculate a value. The cell has a format that
determines how to display the value. A cell can be part of a
range. A cell is usually referred to by its column
(labelled by one or more letters from the sequence A, B, ...,
Z, AA, AB, ..., AZ, BA, BB, ..., BZ, ... ) and its row number
counting up from one, e.g. cell B3 is in the second column
across and the third row down. A cell also belongs to a
particular sheet, e.g. "Sheet 1".
2. <networking> ATM's term for a packet.
(2007-10-22)