See Also: Terminal(medicine)
terminal web(medicine)
Terminal value(money)
terminal bar(medicine)
NH2-terminal(medicine)
Terminal value(finance)
terminal(dictionary)
air terminal(dictionary)
terminal haematuria(medicine)
terminal part(medicine)

terminal (iou)



terminal adjective & noun. LME.
[Latin terminalis, from terminus end, boundary: see -AL1.]
A. adjective.
Occurring at the end (in time); forming the last member of a series or succession; closing, final, ultimate. (rare before M19.) LME.
New Statesman People..speculated whether the Labour Party was not in the process of terminal disintegration. New Yorker I had eighty-seven days of terminal leave when the war was over.
b. Medicine. Of or pertaining to the final stage of a fatal disease, or a patient or patients with a disease in such a stage. L19.
Times She is in hospital with terminal cancer.
c. Ruinous, disastrous, very great; incurable, irreversible. colloq. L20.
Times A bad case of terminal tiredness had lowered my resistance.
Heraldry. Of a coat of arms: differenced by a border. L15-L16.
a. Pertaining to or marking a boundary. Now rare. M18.
b. Designating a statue, figure, etc. terminating in and apparently springing from a pillar or pedestal, or the pillar or pedestal itself. Cf. TERM noun 15, TERMINUS 2b. M19.
Situated at or forming the end or extremity of something; spec. (a) Crystallography designating the faces, edges, or angles of a crystal at the extremities of its longest axis; (b) Zoology & Anatomy situated at or forming the (outer) end of a part or series of parts; (c) Botany (of a flower, inflorescence, etc.) growing at the end of a stem, branch, etc. (opp. axillary). E19.
Garden Sweetly scented flowers..conspicuous in dense terminal clusters.
b. Situated at the end of a railway line; forming or pertaining to a (railway) terminus. M19.
Belonging to or lasting for a term or definite period; esp. pertaining to a university or law term; occurring every term or at fixed terms; termly. E19.
Logic. Pertaining to a term. rare. L19.
Special collocations: terminal ballistics the branch of ballistics that deals with the impact of the projectile on the target. terminal guidance: of a missile immediately prior to detonation. terminal juncture Linguistics a juncture that occurs at the end of a syntactic unit. terminal market Commerce a market that deals in futures. terminal moraine Geology a moraine at the lower end of a glacier. terminal nosedive Aeronautics a nosedive during which an aircraft reaches its terminal velocity. terminal string Linguistics in transformational grammar, a string consisting wholly of terminal symbols. terminal symbol Linguistics in transformational grammar, a symbol that cannot be further rewritten. terminal velocity the constant speed that a freely falling object eventually attains when the resistance of the medium prevents further acceleration.
b. noun.
In pl. [Latin Terminalia.] An ancient Roman festival held annually in honour of the god Terminus. rare. Only in M17.
A part or structure situated at or forming the end, or an end, of something; spec. (a) Electricity each of the free ends of an open circuit (by connecting which the circuit is closed); a structure forming such an end, as each of the metal contacts of a battery etc.; (b) Physiology the structure at the end of a nerve fibre; (c) a carving or other ornament at the end of something, as a finial; (d) a device for entering data into a computer or receiving its output; esp. one that can be used by a person as a means of two-way communication with a computer. M19.
A final syllable, letter, or word; a termination. rare. M19.
a. A station at the end of a railway line, a terminus; a place or town at which a railway line has a terminus. Also, a terminus for long-distance buses etc.; a departure and arrival building for air passengers at an airport. L19.
b. In pl. Charges made by a railway company for the use of a terminus or other station, esp. for loading or unloading goods etc. Now rare. L19.
c. An installation where oil is stored at the end of a pipeline or at a port of call for oil tankers. M20.
A terminal figure; = TERM noun 15, TERMINUS 2b. L19.
A person with a terminal illness. M20.
terminally adverb M17.