Filter

8 definitions found

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

  Filter \Fil"ter\, n. [F. filtre, the same word as feutre felt,
     LL. filtrum, feltrum, felt, fulled wool, this being used for
     straining liquors. See {Feuter}.]
     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.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Filter bed}, a pond, the bottom of which is a filter
        composed of sand gravel.
  
     {Filter gallery}, an underground gallery or tunnel, alongside
        of a stream, to collect the water that filters through the
        intervening sand and gravel; -- called also {infiltration
        gallery}.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  Filter \Fil"ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Filtered}; p. pr. & vb.
     n. {Filtering}] [Cf. F. filter. See {Filter}, n., and cf.
     {Filtrate}.]
     To purify or defecate, as water or other liquid, by causing
     it to pass through a filter.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Filtering paper}, or {Filter paper}, a porous unsized paper,
        for filtering.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  Filter \Fil"ter\, v. i.
     To pass through a filter; to percolate.
     [1913 Webster]

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

  Filter \Fil"ter\, n.
     Same as {Philter}.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  filter
       n 1: device that removes something from whatever passes through
            it
       2: an electrical device that alters the frequency spectrum of
          signals passing through it
       v 1: remove by passing through a filter; "filter out the
            impurities" [syn: {filtrate}, {strain}, {separate out},
            {filter out}]
       2: pass through; "Water permeates sand easily" [syn: {percolate},
           {sink in}, {permeate}]
       3: run or flow slowly, as in drops or in an unsteady stream;
          "water trickled onto the lawn from the broken hose";
          "reports began to dribble in" [syn: {trickle}, {dribble}]

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

  87 Moby Thesaurus words for "filter":
     bleed, bolt, butterfly, cheesecloth, clarifier, clarify, clean,
     clear, cloth, colander, condense, cradle, cribble, decrassify,
     depurate, diffusing screen, discharge, distill, drain, dribble,
     drip, dripple, drop, edulcorate, effuse, eliminate, elute, emit,
     essentialize, exclude, excrete, exfiltrate, extract, extravasate,
     exudate, exude, filtrate, frosted glass, frosted lens, gauze,
     gelatin filter, give off, ground glass, gurgle, leach, lens hood,
     light filter, lixiviate, lixiviator, membrane, ooze, pass through,
     percolate, percolator, purifier, purify, rectify, reek, refine,
     refiner, refinery, riddle, rocker, run through, screen, seep,
     separate, sieve, sift, sifter, smoked glass, spiritualize, spurtle,
     stained glass, strain, strainer, sublimate, sublime, transude,
     trickle, try, weed out, weep, winnow, winnowing basket,
     winnowing fan, winnowing machine
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  filter n. [very common; orig. {{Unix}}, now also in {{MS-DOS}}] A
     program that processes an input data stream into an output data stream
     in some well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except
     possibly on error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage in a
     `pipeline' (see {plumbing}). Compare {sponge}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  filter
       
          1. (Originally {Unix}, now also {MS-DOS}) A program that
          processes an input data stream into an output data stream in
          some well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except
          possibly on error conditions; one designed to be used as a
          stage in a {pipeline} (see {plumbing}).  Compare {sponge}.
       
          2. ({functional programming}) A {higher-order function} which
          takes a {predicate} and a list and returns those elements of
          the list for which the predicate is true.  In {Haskell}:
       
          	filter p []     = []
          	filter p (x:xs) = if p x then x : rest else rest
          			  where
          			  rest = filter p xs
       
          See also {filter promotion}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]