D defs.my
Entry 7 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Cell

/sĕl/ · IPA /sɛl/
01 n. A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit.
  1. 1.
    A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit.
    “The heroic confessor in his cell.” Macaulay.
  2. 2.
    A small religious house attached to a monastery or convent.
  3. 3.
    Any small cavity, or hollow place.
  4. 4.
    The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.(Arch.)
  5. 5.
    A jar of vessel, or a division of a compound vessel, for holding the exciting fluid of a battery.(Elec.)
  6. 6.
    One of the minute elementary structures, of which the greater part of the various tissues and organs of animals and plants are composed.(Biol.)
Phrases & compounds
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 — See Cellular theory, under Cellular.
02 v. t. To place or inclose in a cell.
imp. & p. p. Celled
  1. 1.
    To place or inclose in a cell.[R.]