filterableadj.
/ˈfɪlt(ə)rəbl/, U.S. /ˈfɪlt(ə)rəb(ə)l/ 1.
a. That can pass through a filter.
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filterable1800
filter-passing1910
1800 B. Higgins Observ. & Advices Improvem. Manuf. Muscovado Sugar & Rum II. 23 In the experience of many years, I have met no filtrable liquor which equals cane-juice, in the difficulties of quick and accurate filtration, or of that perfect depuration of which alone we treat at this moment.
1881 Lancet 19 Mar. 469/1 Albumen is slowly filtrable, and may only pass through when it remains for a comparatively long time in contact with the wall of the vessel.
1915 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 6 Feb. 242/1 (note) Colloidal arsenic trisulphide ceases to be filtrable when mixed with a colloidal solution of Berlin blue, although the mixture is quite transparent.
1962 T. G. Hiebert Abbrev. Basic Med. Physiol. (ed. 4) ii. vi. 135 The capillary hydrostatic blood pressure..tends to drive the filterable fluid of the blood through the capillary wall and into the interstitial spaces.
1998 Jrnl. Crustacean Biol. 18 225/2 Filterable (i.e. nonhemocyanin-bound) exogenous copper was measured on hemolymph ultrafiltrates.
b. spec. Designating an infectious agent that can pass through a filter which retains most bacteria; esp. in filterable virus (see virus n. 2b). Also: transmitted or caused by a filterable agent of this type (now rare). Now chiefly historical.
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1903 Red Cross Notes (Johnson & Johnson) No. 9. 195/2 These diseases may be separated into two groups, (a) those caused by filterable virus..; and (b) those caused by non-filterable virus.
1922 Glasgow Herald 21 Feb. 10 A number of animal diseases besides foot-and-mouth disease are caused by filterable viruses.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xiv. 353 In the Rous sarcoma the infective agent, being filterable, must be of the order of a virus.
1958 Amer. Scientist 46 227 As malignant conditions, the filterable tumors exhibit the manifestations of other typical neoplasms.
1986 J. F. Gracey Meat Hygiene (ed. 8) xx. 467/2 The mycoplasmas are very small, filterable organisms which vary in shape, since they do not possess a cell membrane.
2001 Kenyon Rev. & Stand Spring 117 The existence of filterable agents, later to be called viruses.
2. Of a sort or type that can be retained by a filter; that can be removed by filtering.
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1851 De Bow's Rev. Apr. 387 The indication, therefore, is obviously, to reduce those chemical impurities..to a mechanical, or filtrable condition.
1923 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 102 623 These amicrons would in time either coalesce to form visible and filtrable aggregates or they would attach themselves to the large particles and so cause an increase in weight of the dispersoid caught.
1994 Water Environment Res. 66 418/1 Higher removal efficiences of total and filterable AOX [= adsorbable organic halogen] were achieved in the facultative stabilization basin.
2008 Proc. Royal Irish Acad. B. 108 70/2 Suspended particles..form aggregates, which then rapidly settle out of suspension in filterable sizes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1800