pipette
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of pipette
From French, dating back to 1830–40; see origin at pipe 1, -ette
Explanation
One of the tools in a chemistry lab is a pipette, a glass tube used to move liquids. If you were examining a chemical under your microscope, you'd use a pipette to put a drop on your slide. Some pipettes are used for measuring small amounts of liquid, but the most common use is transporting them from one place to another. When you squeeze a small bulb attached to the pipette, the vacuum you've created sucks fluid up into the slender glass instrument. Think of an eye dropper, the most commonly-used type of pipette. The word comes from Middle French, in which it means "tube."
Vocabulary lists containing pipette
Power Suffix: -ette
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"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Holding a pipette carefully in one hand, Laxamana talked through the radio to troubleshoot the problem.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 1, 2024
As the naira plunged and pump prices increased several times, the government, aware of the potential danger of protests, continued to pipette some medicine to the masses.
From BBC • Nov. 17, 2024
Microinjection is a method for introducing cells, genetic material, or other agents directly into embryos, cells, or tissues using a very fine pipette.
From Science Daily • Apr. 26, 2024
Terrica Purvis squinted through goggles as her hands carefully guided a pipette full of indigo-tinted fluid into clear glass test tubes.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 24, 2023
It involved scraping cells from the cervix with a curved glass pipette and examining them under a microscope for precancerous changes that TeLinde and a few others had identified years earlier.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
