extender

[ik-sten-der]

noun

a substance added to another substance, as to paint or food, to increase its volume or bulk: to add cereal and soy protein to hamburger as extenders.

Photography. See under converter(def 8).

Origin of extender

First recorded in 1605–15; extend + -er¹

converter

or con·ver·tor

[kuh n-vur-ter]

noun

a person or thing that converts.

Electricity. a device that converts alternating current to direct current or vice versa.Compare inverter, synchronous converter.

Metallurgy. a chamber or vessel through which an oxidizing blast of air is forced, as in making steel by the Bessemer process.

Television. decoder(def 5).

Radio and Television. an auxiliary device that permits a receiver to pick up frequencies or channels for which it was not originally designed.

Physics. a reactor for converting one kind of fuel into another kind.

a person who is engaged in converting textile fabrics, especially cotton cloths, from the raw state into the finished product ready for the market by bleaching, dyeing, etc.

Also called converter lens. Photography. an additional lens attached to a lens in use on a camera to alter focal length, mounted in front of a lens to produce a wide-angle effect (wide-angle converter) or between the lens and the camera body to produce a telephoto effect (teleconverter or extender).

Origin of converter

First recorded in 1525–35; convert¹ + -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for extender

Historical Examples of extender

I shook hands with each one of the High-Pocketses as they filed into the extender.
Nine Men in Time
Noel Miller Loomis
It was apparent by that time that the extender would never be anything in a printing office but a psychological monstrosity.
Nine Men in Time
Noel Miller Loomis
This extender can be prepared 12 to 24 hours before use if it is stored at refrigerator temperature.
Preservation of Bull Semen at Sub-Zero Temperatures
N. L. VanDemark

British Dictionary definitions for extender

extender

noun

a person or thing that extends

a substance, such as French chalk or china clay, added to paints to give them body and decrease their rate of settlement

a substance added to glues and resins to dilute them or to modify their viscosity

a substance added to elastomers to assist the plasticizer

printing the part of certain lower-case letters that extends either above (the ascender) or below (the descender) the body of the letter

converter

convertor

noun

a person or thing that converts

physics

a device for converting alternating current to direct current or vice versa
a device for converting a signal from one frequency to another or from analogue to digital forms

a vessel in which molten metal is refined, using a blast of air or oxygenSee also Bessemer converter, L-D converter

short for converter reactor

computing a device for converting one form of coded information to another, such as an analogue-to-digital converter

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for extender

converter

1530s, agent noun from convert (v.). Of machinery, from 1867.

extender in Science

converter

[kən-vûr′tər]

An electrical device that changes the form of an electric signal or power source, as by converting alternating current to direct current, or an analog signal to a digital signal. Compare rectifier transformer.

An electronic device that changes the frequency of a radio or other electromagnetic signal.