Definition of Filter

1. Noun. Device that removes something from whatever passes through it.


2. Verb. Remove by passing through a filter. "Filter out the impurities"
Exact synonyms: Filter Out, Filtrate, Separate Out, Strain
Generic synonyms: Separate
Derivative terms: Filtrate, Filtration, Filtration, Filtrate, Strainer

3. Noun. An electrical device that alters the frequency spectrum of signals passing through it.
Generic synonyms: Electrical Device
Specialized synonyms: High-pass Filter, Low-pass Filter

4. Verb. Pass through. "Water permeates sand easily"
Exact synonyms: Percolate, Permeate, Sink In
Generic synonyms: Penetrate, Perforate
Specialized synonyms: Infiltrate, Infiltrate
Derivative terms: Filtration, Filtration, Percolation, Permeant, Permeation

5. Verb. Run or flow slowly, as in drops or in an unsteady stream. "Water and oil filter into the bowl"; "Reports began to dribble in"
Exact synonyms: Dribble, Trickle
Generic synonyms: Course, Feed, Flow, Run
Specialized synonyms: Leach, Percolate
Derivative terms: Trickle

Definition of Filter

1. n. Any porous substance, as cloth, paper, sand, or charcoal, through which water or other liquid may passed to cleanse it from the solid or impure matter held in suspension; a chamber or device containing such substance; a strainer; also, a similar device for purifying air.

2. v. t. To purify or defecate, as water or other liquid, by causing it to pass through a filter.

3. v. i. To pass through a filter; to percolate.

4. n. Same as Philter.

Definition of Filter

1. Noun. A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from another. ¹

2. Noun. Electronics or software that separates unwanted signals (for example noise) from wanted signals or that attenuates selected frequencies. ¹

3. Noun. Any item, mechanism, device or procedure that acts to separate or isolate. ¹

4. Noun. (mathematics order theory) A non-empty upper set (of a partially ordered set) which is closed under binary infima (a.k.a. meets). ¹

5. Verb. (transitive) To sort, sift, or isolate. ¹

6. Verb. (transitive) To diffuse; to cause to be less concentrated or focused. ¹

7. Verb. (intransitive) To pass through a filter or to act as though passing through a filter. ¹

8. Verb. (intransitive) To move slowly or gradually; to come or go a few at a time. ¹

9. Verb. (intransitive) To ride a motorcycle between lanes on a road ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Filter

1. to pass through a filter (a device for removing suspended matter) [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Medical Definition of Filter

1. 1. A porous substance through which a liquid or gas is passed in order to separate it from contained particulate matter or impurities. Synonym: filtrum. 2. To use or to subject to the action of a filter. 3. In diagnostic or therapeutic radiology, a plate made of one or more metals such as aluminum and copper that, placed in the x-or gamma-ray beam, permits passage of a greater proportion of higher energy radiation and attenuation of lower and less desirable energy radiation, raising the average energy or hardening the beam. 4. A device used in spectrophotometric analysis to isolate a segment of the spectrum. 5. A mathematical algorithm applied to image data for the purpose of enhancing image quality, usually by suppression of high spatial frequency noise. Origin: Mediev. L. Filtro, pp. -atus, to strain through felt, fr. Filtrum, felt (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Filter

filopodium
filopressure
filos
filose
filoselle
filoselles
filovaricosis
filoviridae
filoviridae infections
filovirus
filovirus infections
filoviruses
fils
filst
filsten
filter (current term)
filter-feeder
filter-feeders
filter-tipped
filter-tipped cigarette
filter bank
filter bed
filter down
filter fabric
filter feeder
filter feeders
filter funnel
filter funnels
filter lane
filter lanes

Literary usage of Filter

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A French-English Dictionary for Chemists by Austin McDowell Patterson (1921)
"à aspiration, suction filter. — о bougie, candle filter, cylinder filter. ... vr be filtered, filter. — dans le vide, filter in vacuo, filter with suction. ..."

2. Methods of Practical Hygiene by Karl Bernhard Lehmann (1893)
"filter itself, and pervade it so that the filtrate is often richer in bacteria ... The manner in which the action of a filter is tested as regards chemical ..."

3. American Druggist (1889)
"filter paper, beaten or shaken into a pulp, can be put to a variety of uses. ... All torn filters, filter trimmings, and scraps of clean filter paper are ..."

4. Standard Methods of Chemical Analysis: A Manual of Analytical Methods and by Wilfred Welday Scott (1922)
"A filter two inches thick and lj.inches in diameter is effective in removing suspended matter completely with gas passing through it at the rate of 2 to 3 ..."

5. Public Water-supplies: Requirements, Resources, and the Construction of Works by Frederick Eugene Turneaure, Harry Luman Russell, Daniel Webster Mead (1908)
"General Description of the Rapid Sand filter. — This type ol filter, also called the "mechanical filter" and the ..."

6. Niosh Manual of Analytical Methods: Sampling and Analytical Methods for ...edited by Peter M. Eller edited by Peter M. Eller (1994)
"Handle the filter with forceps. Pass the filter over an antistatic radiation source. Repeat this step if filter does not release easily from the forceps or ..."

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