A Topical Dictionary: Search for tracer

Dictionary Results For "tracer" [?]/[OPML]

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Wiktionary Articles [RSS] - [GNU, www.Wiktionary.org]

English

Pronunciation

Rhymes: Rhymes:English:-eɪsə(r)|-eɪsə(r)

Noun

A chemical used to track the progress or history of a natural process.
A piece of ammunition for a firearm that contains magnesium or another flammable substance arranged such that it will burn and produce a visible trail when fired at night.
The act of tracking or investigating something.
A person who traces something.

Translations

French: marqueur

Finnish: valojuova-ammus

----

French

Pronunciation

An audio transcript can be found at Fr-tracer.ogg
IPA: /tʁa.se/
w:SAMPA|SAMPA: /tRa.se/

Verb

to draw or plot (a diagram), to trace out
To rule (a line)

Conjugation

et:tracer fr:tracer io:tracer id:tracer ro:tracer ru:tracer fi:tracer ta:tracer vi:tracer

GNU Project's publication of CIDE, the Collaborative International Dictionary of English Tracer \Tra"cer\, n.
One who, or that which, traces.
[1913 Webster]

2. A person engaged (esp. in the express or railway service)
in tracing, or searching out, missing articles, as
packages or freight cars.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]

3. An inquiry sent out (esp. in transportation service) for a
missing article, as a letter or an express package.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]

4. (Mil.) a type of ammunition that emits light or smoke as
it moves toward its target, providing a visible path of
the projectile in flight so that the point of impact may
be observed; -- called also tracer ammunition.
[PJC]

5. (Mil.) the chemical substance used in tracer ammunition to
cause it to be visible in flight.
[PJC]

6. a chemical substance with properties, such as
radioactivity or fluorescence, which make it easily
measurable, used to observe the movements of chemically
related substances through a biological, physical, or
chemical system; -- in biochemistry, also called {labeled
compounds}.

Note: Radioactive tracers are used, for example, to measure
the retention or distribution of residues of drugs
after administration to an animal, to determine the
type and rate of metabolism; also, to measure the rate
of motion of molecules in electrophoresis or the
leakage of small quantities of material from a
container. Small fluorescent tracers may be attached in
many cases to macromolecules such as proteins or
nucleic acids, allowing the motions of such
macromolecules to be easily observed by their acquired
fluorescence, without appreciably changing their
properties. In biological and biochemial systems the
common radioactive isotopes used in tracers are
carbon-14, tritium (hydrogen-3), sulfur-35,
phosphorus-32, and iodine-131; other isotopes are also
used, including non-radioactive isotopes such as
carbon-13.
[PJC]

WordNet tracer
n 1: an investigator who is employed to find missing persons or
missing goods
2: an instrument used to make tracings
3: (radiology) any radioactive isotope introduced into the body
to study metabolism or other biological processes
4: ammunition whose flight can be observed by a trail of smoke
[syn: tracer bullet]

Moby Dictionary
alpha radiator , atom , atomic cocktail , atomic model , ball ,
bar shot , beta radiator , bird shot , buckshot , bullet , cannon shot ,
cannonball , case shot , cobalt , crossbar shot , duck shot ,
dumdum bullet , expanding bullet , fission products ,
fluorescent paint , gamma radiator , grape , grapeshot , ion ,
langrel shot , manstopping bullet , nuclear atom , nuclide , pellet ,
planetary shell , radiator , radioactive waste , radiocalcium ,
radiocarbon , radiocopper , radioelement , radioiodine , radioisotope ,
radiosodium , radiothorium , radium , radium dial , radium paint ,
rifle ball , round shot , shell , shot , shrapnel , slug , split shot ,
subshell , tagged atom , tagged element , tracer atom , tracer element ,
valence shell