suppressor
Britishnoun
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a person or thing that suppresses
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a device fitted to an electrical appliance to suppress unwanted electrical interference to audiovisual signals
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A mutant gene that suppresses the phenotypic expression of another usually mutant gene.
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A device, such as a resistor or grid, that is used in an electrical or electronic system to reduce unwanted currents.
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◆ A suppressor grid in a vacuum tube such as a pentode is designed to prevent the secondary emission of electrons from the plate. When electrons emitted by the tube's cathode strike the plate, their energies can be high enough to cause secondary emission of low-energy electrons from the plate, and these electrons can drift away into other positively charged electrodes in the tube (like the screen or the control grid), drawing current from the plate. A negatively charged suppressor grid near the plate repels these low-energy electrons and pushes them back toward the plate so that no current is lost, increasing the efficiency of the tube.
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.
The researchers discovered that PIP2 normally acts as a natural suppressor of Piezo1.
From Science Daily • Dec. 25, 2025
Meisel, now an assistant professor at Brandeis University, added, "The reason this is exciting is because the suppressor that we've identified, FDX2, is now a protein that can be targeted using more conventional medicines."
From Science Daily • Dec. 12, 2025
In type 1 diabetes, for example, the immune system destroys pancreatic islet cells, while these suppressor cells just stand by.
From Science Daily • Dec. 5, 2024
Lim and his colleagues were inspired by "suppressor" cells, which are the immune system's natural brakes.
From Science Daily • Dec. 5, 2024
Research into HPV eventually uncovered how Henrietta’s cancer started: HPV inserted its DNA into the long arm of her eleventh chromosome and essentially turned off her p 5 3 tumor suppressor gene.
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.
