reactor
[ree-ak-ter]
- a person or thing that reacts or undergoes reaction.
- Electricity. a device whose primary purpose is to introduce reactance into a circuit.
- Immunology, Veterinary Medicine. a patient or animal that reacts positively towards a foreign material.
- Also called atomic pile, chain reactor, chain-reacting pile, nuclear reactor, pile. Physics. an apparatus in which a nuclear-fission chain reaction can be initiated, sustained, and controlled, for generating heat or producing useful radiation.
- Chemistry. (especially in industry) a large container, as a vat, for processes in which the substances involved undergo a chemical reaction.
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Origin of reactor
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for reactor
Contemporary Examples
In 1981, while the world condemned us, we sent our air force to destroy the Osirak reactor Saddam Hussein was building in Iraq.
Iran is suspected to have aided in the funding of that reactor.
It prohibits the manufacture of new centrifuges and work on the Arak reactor.
The reactor has the potential to produce weapons grade plutonium.
The reactor has the potential to produce weapon grade plutonium.
Historical Examples
This will give you a constant temperature inside the reactor.
The K-FactorHarry Harrison (AKA Henry Maxwell Dempsey)
Father, do you remember when the Haval Valley reactor blew up?
Ministry of DisturbanceHenry Beam Piper
Obviously, the reactor was the only part not vaporized in the fall—because of its construction.
A Fine FixR. C. Noll
Relief swept over him as he looked back at the reactor itself.
The Bramble BushGordon Randall Garrett
I was finishing up with Reactor One when I heard the explosion.
The Bramble BushGordon Randall Garrett
reactor
- chem a substance, such as a reagent, that undergoes a reaction
- short for nuclear reactor
- a vessel, esp one in industrial use, in which a chemical reaction takes place
- a coil of low resistance and high inductance that introduces reactance into a circuit
- med a person sensitive to a particular drug or agent
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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 reactor
n.
"one that reacts," 1835, agent noun in Latin form from react. In nuclear sense, attested from 1945.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper