From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
iris
n 1: plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing
bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and
three drooping sepals [syn: flag, fleur-de-lis,
sword lily]
2: muscular diaphragm that controls the size of the pupil; it
forms the colored portion of the eye
3: diaphragm consisting of thin overlapping plates that can be
adjusted to change the diameter of a central opening [syn:
iris diaphragm]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Iris \I"ris\, n.; pl. E. Irises, L. Irides. [L. iris,
iridis, the goddess, Gr. ?, ?, the rainbow, iris of the eye,
the plant Iris. Cf. Orris.]
1. (Class. Myth.) The goddess of the rainbow, and
swift-footed messenger of the gods. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. The rainbow. --Sir T. Browne.
[1913 Webster]
3. An appearance resembling the rainbow; a prismatic play of
colors. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Anat.) The contractile membrane perforated by the pupil,
and forming the colored portion of the eye. See Eye.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Bot.) A genus of plants having showy flowers and bulbous
or tuberous roots, of which the flower-de-luce
(fleur-de-lis), orris, and other species of flag are
examples. See Illust. of Flower-de-luce.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Her.) See Fleur-de-lis, 2.
[1913 Webster]
7. (Zool.) the inner circle of an oscillated color spot.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
8. same as iris diaphragm.
[PJC]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
IRIS
<body> Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship
of Brown University (Providence RI).
(1994-11-04)
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
Iris
An object-oriented DBMS.
(1994-11-04)