Glossary
Terms starting with F
320 definitions · page 3 of 6.
- Fine Pitch Picture Tube
- A fine pitch picture tune has smaller, more tightly spaced phosphor dots than normal picture tubes to enable an image with much finer detail.
- Fines herbes
- A mixture of chopped aromatic fresh herbs used in French cooking, particularly in egg dishes, sauces, salads and soups. The classic combination is chopped chives, chervil, parsley and tarragon. You can buy fines herbes dried.
- Finger
- A Unix program used to display information about users of the system. Can be used remotely.
- fingerboard
- A piece of wood extending from the body of a string instrument; the strings are attached to the end of the fingerboard.
- fingerprint
- 1. The characteristic spot pattern produced by electrophoresis of the polypeptide fragments obtained through denaturation of a particular protein with a proteolytic enzyme. 2. See DNA fingerprint.
- FINITE RISK REINSURANCE
- Contract under which the ultimate liability of the reinsurer is capped and on which anticipated investment income is expressly acknowledged as an underwriting component. Also known as Financial Reinsurance because this type of coverage is often bought to…
- FIRE INSURANCE
- Coverage protecting property against losses caused by a fire or lightning that is usually included in homeowners or commercial multiple peril policies.
- fireball
- an extremely bright meteor; generally brighter than magnitude –4
- fireballs
- extremely bright meteors; generally brighter than magnitude –4
- Firewall
- Firewall refers to either software-only or separate software and hardware combination that serves to protect an internal network or a computer from attacks and unauthorized access by sitting between the Internet and the internal network.
- FireWire
- Apple's trademarked name for the IEEE 1394 external bus standard. This is an extremely fast computer port that can be used to connect up to 63 devices. FireWire supports isochronous data, meaning that it can deliver data at a guaranteed rate. Other…
- FIRM ENERGY
- Power supplies that are guaranteed to be delivered under terms defined by contract.
- First Chair information
- Slang expression for the main attorney during an actual trial.
- First Degree Murder information
- Most jurisdictions define First Degree Murder to be knowingly causing the death of a person after deliberating upon the matter. Murder generally is broken up into degrees. See Second Degree Murder.
- first division segregation (FDS)
- The allele arrangement (4+4) of spores within an ordered ascus that indicates the lack of recombination between a locus and its centromere. A linear pattern (4+4) of spore phenotypes within an ordered ascus for a particular allele pair, produced when the…
- First Preference
- A category of family immigration (F1) for unmarried sons and daughters of American citizens and their children.
- first quarter
- the phase of the moon a quarter of the way around its orbit from new moon; the eastern half is illuminated during this phase
- FIRST-PARTY COVERAGE
- Coverage for the policyholder’s own property or person. In no-fault auto insurance it pays for the cost of injuries. In no-fault states with the broadest coverage, the personal injury protection (PIP) part of the policy pays for medical care, lost income…
- Fiscal Year
- The budget year for the United States Government. It begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year.
- Fish sauce
- A powerful thin brown sauce used in the cooking of numerous countries in Asia. It's made by fermenting small whole fish in brine and drawing off the liquid, which is then bottled. It smells pungent and tastes very salty, although cooking greatly reduces its…
- Fishing Expedition information
- A classic objection to overbroad discovery requests is to assert that the requester is seeking material beyond the scope of the pleadings and is in fact fishing for other information, not now part of the case, in order to support an additional count or cause…
- fishtail train
- Fitted around the hips and flares out from the knee to the hemline.
- FISSION
- A release of energy caused by the splitting of an atom's nucleus. This is the energy process used in conventional nuclear power plants to make the heat needed to run steam electric turbines.
- FISSIONABLE MATERIAL
- A substance whose atoms can be split by slow neutrons. Uranium-235, plutonium-239 and uranium-233 are fissionable materials.
- fitness (W)
- The relative reproductive success of a genotype as measured by survival; fecundity or other life history parameters. See Darwinian fitness and natural selection.
- Fitness for a Particular Purpose information
- Every seller implicitly warrants that the goods he sells are fit and will perform well for the purpose a buyer can reasonably anticipate using the goods for. A seller, basically, has a duty to provide suitable goods.
- fitted point sleeve
- A long, narrow sleeve that tapers to a point which rests against the back of the hand.
- Five-spice powder
- A pungent mixture of five spices commonly used in Chinese cookery; it's a brown powder made of ground star anise, fennel seeds, cloves, cinnamon and Sichuan pepper. It's available from Chinese grocers, and is becoming more widely available in supermarkets…
- fixed allele
- An allele for which all members of the population under study are homozygous, so that no other alleles for this locus exist in the population.
- FIXED ANNUITY
- An annuity that guarantees a specific rate of return. In the case of a deferred annuity, a minimum rate of interest is guaranteed during the savings phase. During the payment phase, a fixed amount of income, paid on a regular schedule, is guaranteed.
- fixed breakage point
- According to the heteroduplex DNA recombination model, the point from which unwinding of the DNA double helices begins, as a prelude to formation of heteroduplex DNA.
- FIXED COSTS
- Costs that do not vary with sales, instead they are necessary expenditures (rent, utilities, etc.)
- Fixed In A Tangible Medium Of Expression information
- In copyright law, the item for which copyright protection is sought must have been recorded in some physical way, such as written on paper, or recorded on tape or digitally, etc.
- Fixed Pricing information
- Unlawfully making an agreement with a competitor to set a price in a market. This is a mutually agreed upon price.
- Fixed Rate Mortgage information
- A mortgage interest rate that will not change, but is fixed, for the entire term or life of the loan.
- Fixed-target Experiment
- An experiment in which the beam of particles from an accelerator is directed at a stationary (or nearly stationary) target. The target may be a solid, a tank containing liquid or gas, or a gas jet.
- Fixture information
- Personal property that has been permanently affixed to the real property or the structure on the real property such that it is considered part of the realty.
- Flaky pastry
- A type of pastry that's rolled, folded and re-rolled several times to create layers of pastry which in the heat of the oven will rise into thin leaves. Heavier than puff pastry, but easier to make, it's usually used for savoury pies and is often baked with a…
- Flame
- An insulting email message sent to an individual as punishment for not adhering to the netiquette. Can be sometimes seen in the newsgroups or on internet message boards.
- Flan
- An open pie with a pastry base containing a sweet or savoury filling in a custard of eggs and cream. Spinach flan or leek and bacon flan are examples. In Spain and Latin America 'flan' is used to refer to the egg custard dessert that we know as crème caramel.
- flare
- a sudden, violent outburst of energy from the surface of a star
- FLARE GAS
- Unwanted natural gas that is disposed of by burning as it is released from an oil field.
- Flash
- multimedia technology developed by Macromedia to allow much interactivity to fit in a relatively small file size.
- flat
- (1) In musical notation, a sign (6) indicating that the note it precedes is to be played a half step lower; (2) the term used to specify a particular note, for example, B6.
- Flat Picture Tube
- Incredibly strong, flat glass screen minimizes distortion for pictures with advanced clarity and detail. Edges of the screen are flattened out giving the impression of a larger, better picture.
- FLAT PLATE
- A device used to collect solar energy. It is a piece of metal painted black on the side facing the sun, to absorb the sun's heat.
- FLAT PLATE .
- A device used to collect solar energy. It is a piece of metal painted black on the side facing the sun, to absorb the sun's heat.
- Flat Tax Information
- A Flat Tax is a tax that is applied at an identical rate for all incomes, high or low. While the flat tax will make the tax process much simpler, there are fairness issues involved. Opponents to the flat tax argue that it is inequitable in application…
- flat-front pants
- Straight pants, often seamless and pocketless.
- Flavor
- The name used for the different quarks types (up, down, strange, charm, bottom, top) and for the different lepton types (electron, muon, tau). For each charged lepton flavor there is a corresponding neutrino flavor. In other words, flavor is the quantum…
- Fleur de sel
- Fleur de sel is a moist salt from France. Available from good delis or some larger supermarkets.
- Flexi-Time
- Some employers make it possible for employees to choose their own working hours as long as they're in the office between set times. If, for example, the flexi-time is 7am - 9pm and employees are expected to work 8 hours per day (including lunch and other…
- FLEXIBLE FUEL VEHICLE (FFV)
- a vehicle that can operate on either alcohol fuels (methanol or ethanol) or regular unleaded gasoline or any combination of the two from the same tank.
- FLOATER
- Attached to a homeowners policy, a floater insures movable property, covering losses wherever they may occur. Among the items often insured with a floater are expensive jewelry, musical instruments, and furs. It provides broader coverage than a regular…
- Florentine
- Any French or Italian dish described as 'Florentine' uses spinach as its base. A florentine is also a kind of biscuit made with nuts, honey and dried fruit. When the biscuits are cooked and have cooled they’re spread on one side with melted chocolate and…
- Florets
- Florets are the small, individual flower stems that make up the heads of vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower.
- Flour
- Flour is made from finely ground cereal, such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice and maize (corn). In Britain, the word 'flour' usually refers to flour produced from wheat. Wheat flour contains gluten, a protein that forms an elastic network that helps…
- fluctuation test
- A test used in microbial genetics to establish the random nature of mutation, or to measure mutation rates. An experiment by Luria and Delbruck that compared the variance in number of mutations among small cultures with subsamples of a large culture to…
- FLUE GAS
- Gas that is left over after fuel is burned and which is disposed of through a pipe or stack to the outer air.
- FLUIDIZED BED COMBUSTION
- A process for burning powdered coal that is poured in a liquid-like stream with air or gases. The process reduces sulfur dioxide emissions from coal combustion.