Cancer

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sign \Sign\, n. [F. signe, L. signum; cf. AS. segen, segn, a
     sign, standard, banner, also fr. L. signum. Cf. {Ensign},
     {Resign}, {Seal} a stamp, {Signal}, {Signet}.]
     That by which anything is made known or represented; that
     which furnishes evidence; a mark; a token; an indication; a
     proof. Specifically:


     (a) A remarkable event, considered by the ancients as
         indicating the will of some deity; a prodigy; an omen.
     (b) An event considered by the Jews as indicating the divine
         will, or as manifesting an interposition of the divine
         power for some special end; a miracle; a wonder.
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               Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of
               the Spirit of God.                   --Rom. xv. 19.
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               It shall come to pass, if they will not believe
               thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first
               sign, that they will believe the voice of the
               latter sign.                         --Ex. iv. 8.
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     (c) Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve
         the memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument.
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               What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty
               men, and they became a sign.         --Num. xxvi.
                                                    10.
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     (d) Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, typifles, or
         represents, an idea; a type; hence, sometimes, a picture.
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               The holy symbols, or signs, are not barely
               significative; but what they represent is as
               certainly delivered to us as the symbols
               themselves.                          --Brerewood.
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               Saint George of Merry England, the sign of victory.
                                                    --Spenser.
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     (e) A word or a character regarded as the outward
         manifestation of thought; as, words are the sign of
         ideas.
     (f) A motion, an action, or a gesture by which a thought is
         expressed, or a command or a wish made known.
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               They made signs to his father, how he would have
               him called.                          --Luke i. 62.
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     (g) Hence, one of the gestures of pantomime, or of a language
         of a signs such as those used by the North American
         Indians, or those used by the deaf and dumb.
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     Note: Educaters of the deaf distinguish between natural
           signs, which serve for communicating ideas, and
           methodical, or systematic, signs, adapted for the
           dictation, or the rendering, of written language, word
           by word; and thus the signs are to be distinguished
           from the manual alphabet, by which words are spelled on
           the fingers.
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     (h) A military emblem carried on a banner or a standard.
         --Milton.
     (i) A lettered board, or other conspicuous notice, placed
         upon or before a building, room, shop, or office to
         advertise the business there transacted, or the name of
         the person or firm carrying it on; a publicly displayed
         token or notice.
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               The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted
               signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the
               streets.                             --Macaulay.
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     (j) (Astron.) The twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac.
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     Note: The signs are reckoned from the point of intersection
           of the ecliptic and equator at the vernal equinox, and
           are named, respectively, {Aries} ([Aries]), {Taurus}
           ([Taurus]), {Gemini} (II), {Cancer} ([Cancer]), {Leo}
           ([Leo]), {Virgo} ([Virgo]), {Libra} ([Libra]),
           {Scorpio} ([Scorpio]), {Sagittarius} ([Sagittarius]),
           {Capricornus  ([Capricorn]), {Aquarius} ([Aquarius]),
           {Pisces} ([Pisces]). These names were originally the
           names of the constellations occupying severally the
           divisions of the zodiac, by which they are still
           retained; but, in consequence of the procession of the
           equinoxes, the signs have, in process of time, become
           separated about 30 degrees from these constellations,
           and each of the latter now lies in the sign next in
           advance, or to the east of the one which bears its
           name, as the constellation Aries in the sign Taurus,
           etc.
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     (k) (Alg.) A character indicating the relation of quantities,
         or an operation performed upon them; as, the sign +
         (plus); the sign -- (minus); the sign of division /, and
         the like.
     (l) (Med.) An objective evidence of disease; that is, one
         appreciable by some one other than the patient.
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     Note: The terms symptom and and sign are often used
           synonymously; but they may be discriminated. A sign
           differs from a symptom in that the latter is perceived
           only by the patient himself. The term sign is often
           further restricted to the purely local evidences of
           disease afforded by direct examination of the organs
           involved, as distinguished from those evidence of
           general disturbance afforded by observation of the
           temperature, pulse, etc. In this sense it is often
           called physical sign.
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     (m) (Mus.) Any character, as a flat, sharp, dot, etc.
     (n) (Theol.) That which, being external, stands for, or
         signifies, something internal or spiritual; -- a term
         used in the Church of England in speaking of an ordinance
         considered with reference to that which it represents.
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               An outward and visible sign of an inward and
               spiritual grace.                     --Bk. of
                                                    Common Prayer.
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     Note: See the Table of {Arbitrary Signs}, p. 1924.
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     {Sign manual}.
     (a) (Eng. Law) The royal signature superscribed at the top of
         bills of grants and letter patent, which are then sealed
         with the privy signet or great seal, as the case may be,
         to complete their validity.
     (b) The signature of one's name in one's own handwriting.
         --Craig. Tomlins. Wharton.
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     Syn: Token; mark; note; symptom; indication; signal; symbol;
          type; omen; prognostic; presage; manifestation. See
          {Emblem}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Cancer \Can"cer\, n. [L. cancer, cancri, crab, ulcer, a sign of
     the zodiac; akin to Gr. karki`nos, Skr. karka[.t]a crab, and
     prob. Skr. karkara hard, the crab being named from its hard
     shell. Cf. {Canner}, {Chancre}.]
     1. (Zool.) A genus of decapod Crustacea, including some of
        the most common shore crabs of Europe and North America,
        as the rock crab, Jonah crab, etc. See {Crab}.
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     2. (Astron.)
        (a) The fourth of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The
            first point is the northern limit of the sun's course
            in summer; hence, the sign of the summer solstice. See
            {Tropic}.
        (b) A northern constellation between Gemini and Leo.
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     3. (Med.) Formerly, any malignant growth, esp. one attended
        with great pain and ulceration, with cachexia and
        progressive emaciation. It was so called, perhaps, from
        the great veins which surround it, compared by the
        ancients to the claws of a crab. The term is now
        restricted to such a growth made up of aggregations of
        epithelial cells, either without support or embedded in
        the meshes of a trabecular framework.
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     Note: Four kinds of cancers are recognized: (1) {Epithelial
           cancer, or Epithelioma}, in which there is no
           trabecular framework. See {Epithelioma}. (2) {Scirrhous
           cancer, or Hard cancer}, in which the framework
           predominates, and the tumor is of hard consistence and
           slow growth. (3) {Encephaloid cancer}, {Medullary
           cancer}, or {Soft cancer}, in which the cellular
           element predominates, and the tumor is soft, grows
           rapidy, and often ulcerates. (4) {Colloid cancer}, in
           which the cancerous structure becomes gelatinous. The
           last three varieties are also called {carcinoma}.
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     {Cancer cells}, cells once believed to be peculiar to
        cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in
        no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and
        distinguished only by peculiarity of location and
        grouping.
  
     {Cancer root} (Bot.), the name of several low plants, mostly
        parasitic on roots, as the beech drops, the squawroot,
        etc.
  
     {Tropic of Cancer}. See {Tropic}.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  cancer
       n 1: any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and
            uncontrolled cell division; it may spread to other parts
            of the body through the lymphatic system or the blood
            stream [syn: {malignant neoplastic disease}]
       2: (astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Cancer
          [syn: {Crab}]
       3: a small zodiacal constellation in the northern hemisphere;
          between Leo and Gemini
       4: the fourth sign of the zodiac; the sun is in this sign from
          about June 21 to July 22 [syn: {Cancer the Crab}, {Crab}]
       5: type genus of the family Cancridae [syn: {genus Cancer}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "cancer":
     benign tumor, blast, blight, callosity, callus, canker, carcinoma,
     corn, cyst, dry rot, excrescence, fungosity, fungus, growth,
     intumescence, malignant growth, metastatic tumor, mildew, mold,
     mole, morbid growth, moth, moth and rust, must, neoplasm, nevus,
     nonmalignant tumor, outgrowth, pest, proud flesh, rot, rust,
     sarcoma, smut, tumor, verruca, wart, wen, worm