laboratoryn.
/ləˈbɒrət(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈlæbrəˌtɔri/ 1.
a. Originally: a room or building for the practice of alchemy and the preparation of medicines. Later: one equipped for carrying out scientific experiments or procedures, esp. for the purposes of research, teaching, or analysis; (also) one in which chemicals or drugs are manufactured; an establishment in which such work is carried out. From the 19th cent. frequently with distinguishing word. In later use abbreviated lab. Cf. elaboratory n. 1.chemistry, physical, research, space laboratory, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > workshop > [noun] > laboratory
laboratory1592
elaboratory1652
lab1868
1592 J. Dee Autobiogr. Tracts vii. 30 in Chetham Misc. (1851) I My three laboratories serving for Pyrotechnia.
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke iii. 191 Wee commonly prouide, that they [sc. medicines] bee prepared in our Laboratorie at home by a [s]kilfull workeman.
1616 B. Jonson Mercurie Vindicated 2 in Wks. I A laboratory, or Alchymists workehouse.
1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 392 He had a Laboratory to prepare all Medicines that he used on his Patients.
1717 I. Newton Let. 27 June in Corr. (1976) VI. 396 Fitting up a Laboratory wth Furnaces, an Assay Table, Mortars, Sives..& other things necessary for making the Assays.
1765 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) III. iv. 133 His best pieces were representations of chymists and their laboratories.
1802 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 8 87 To establish in London a laboratory, or manufacture of artificial mineral waters.
1820 W. Scott Abbot II. xi. 347 Crucibles, bolt-heads, stoves, and the other furniture of a chemical laboratory.
1881 Nature 435 The electro-magnetic machine has been brought from the physical laboratory into the province of engineering.
1904 Science 15 Jan. 85/1 The establishment of anthropometric and psychometric laboratories..with special reference to the measurement of the savage tribes that will be gathered there.
1966 C. Siragusa & R. Wiedrich Trail of Poppy vii. 113 We raided the Tryfanos summer home. It was a dry well. There was not a trace of a heroin laboratory.
1990 Sci. Amer. Oct. 86/2 His laboratory has developed a variety of polymers, called polyanhydrides, that erode in the body like a bar of soap.
1998 A. Forna Mother of All Myths (1999) v. 135 In IVF, a donor's egg is removed, fertilized in the laboratory with the sperm and then placed inside the receiving woman.
2006 New Yorker 13 Mar. 66/3 A modern laboratory requires equipment—election microscopes, centrifuges, cell fractionators, and powerful computers.
b. In extended and figurative use. Something likened to a scientific laboratory, esp. in being a site or centre of development, production, or experimentation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [noun] > place of production or creation
shop1517
workhouse?1533
workshop1561
childbed1568
factory1618
laboratory1654
elaboratory1667
hotbed1693
mill1771
1654 W. Charleton Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana iii. xv. 342 Some more worthy Explorator..shall wholly withdrawe that thick Curtain of obscurity, which yet hangs betwixt Natures Laboratory and Us.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 65 The Soul (like an excellent Chymist) in this internal Laboratory of Man, by a fermentation of our nourishment in the Stomach [etc.].
1709 J. Reynolds Death's Vision x. 68 The House and Laboratory of the Soul, With all its Vital Furniture's Destroy'd.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature I. 461 Fissures and caverns of rocks are the laboratories, where such operations are carried on.
1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. i. 14 The soil is the laboratory in which the food is prepared.
1860 M. F. Maury Physical Geogr. Sea (ed. 8) xviii. §740 Like the atmosphere it [sc. the sea] is a laboratory in which wonders by processes the most exquisite are continually going on.
1870 J. H. Newman Ess. Gram. Assent ii. viii. 260 A notion neatly turned out of the laboratory of the mind.
1901 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 18 149 Switzerland..is so often called the political laboratory of Europe.
1956 C. Wilson Outsider iii. 51 The Bildungsroman is a sort of laboratory in which the hero conducts an experiment in living.
2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 13 July 8/1 New Prospect, a place where the Great Depression never lifted, supplies Updike with an ideal laboratory in which to cultivate the germ of militant Islamism.
2. Military. A building or department for the manufacture of ammunition and other explosives.In later use also concerned with research and development. Cf. sense 1a.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > production and development of arms > [noun] > manufacture of firearms and ammunition > factory
Topkhana1668
laboratory1694
1694 J. Charlton et al. Let. 9 Oct. in O.F.G. Hogg Royal Arsenal (1963) I. iii. 106 In order whereunto we have made the Annexed Estimate of what the charge of that and a new Laboratory for fixing shells and Carcasses will amount to.
1710 J. Chamberlayne Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia (ed. 23) 564 The New Establishment of the Office of Her Majesty's Ordnance. 1703...Extraordinary Allowances... A Storekeeper at Greenwich, 80 l... Ditto of Laboratory at Woolwich, 40 l.
1716 London Gaz. No. 5439/3 The Ammunition Laboratory..was..set on Fire.
1778 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 231/2 A certain number of men from the regiment of artillery were to be employed in the laboratory as military artificers.
1804 Duke of Wellington Memorandum Nov. in Dispatches (1837) III. 528 The arsenal, the laboratory [etc.]..are under his immediate superintendence.
1846 W. Greener Sci. Gunnery (new ed.) 85 A fuse, invented..by..a person employed in the laboratory at Woolwich.
1880 Atlantic Monthly July 23/1 The explosion of an immense naval laboratory near Richmond, in which were manufactured all the torpedoes, shell, fuses, rockets, signal lights, and ordnance stores for the rebel navy.
1916 Times 23 Oct. 11/2 Private Joseph Thomas Lawrence, of the Army Service Corps, at once collected the fire extinguishers and proceeded by motor to the laboratory.
1952 F. E. Vandiver Ploughshares into Swords vi. 81 Arsenal production had been climbing, and the Richmond ordnance laboratory could now make from 50,000 to 100,000 rounds of small arms ammunition daily.
1961 Polit. Sci. Q. 76 42 Air Force officials were considering setting up a weapons laboratory of their own.
1998 E. A. Davis Nevill Mott Introd. p. xviiii He wrote a paper on..German shells... Apparently, memoranda on this still survive in American ordnance laboratories.
3. Metallurgy. The hearth of a reverberatory furnace.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > furnace or kiln > furnace > parts of furnace > [noun] > hearth or floor of furnace
hearth1551
sole1615
laboratory1790
hearth bottom1821
mouth plate1852
open-hearth1870
shelf1879
kitchen1881
1790 R. Kerr tr. A. Lavoisier Elements Chem. iii. vii. 466 The reverberatory furnace may be used as a melting one, by leaving out the piece called the laboratory, and placing the dome immediately upon the fireplace.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 822 The flame and the smoke which escape from the sole or laboratory pass into condensing chambers.
1938 J. Newton Introd. Metall. xiii. 395 This consists of a long hearth or laboratory with a monolithic refractory bottom, walls of refractory brick, and an arched roof of refractory brick.
1975 Brit. Patent 1,395,229 4/1 This arrangement permits of cooling the gases outgoing from the laboratory before they pass through the material to be processed.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as laboratory apparatus, laboratory chemist, laboratory coat, laboratory experiment, laboratory fire, laboratory machinery, laboratory man, laboratory stores, laboratory work, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > equipment or apparatus > [noun] > miscellaneous apparatus
bain1477
speculum1650
filtering paper1651
wheel-fire1662
filter paper1670
sun furnace1763
respirator1789
candle-ball1794
rectifier1822
candle-bomb1823
filter1823
oxyhydrogen blowpipe1823
shade1837
graduator1839
pipette1839
thistle funnel1849
pressure tube1852
ozonizer1858
dialyser1861
Liebig condenser1861
Sprengel pump1866
Sprengel tube1866
water softener1867
mercury pump1869
Bunsen burner1870
dialysator1877
test-mixer1877
tube-condenser1877
Kipp1879
reflux condenser1880
policeman1888
converter1889
pressure boiler1891
spot plate1896
hydrogen electrode1898
sampler1902
reactor1903
fume-chamber1905
Permutit1910
microburner1911
salt bridge1915
precipitator1919
Raschig ring1920
microneedle1921
titrator1928
laboratory coatc1936
spray tower1937
precipitron1938
ion exchanger1941
potentiostat1942
chemostat1950
Knudsen pipette1951
pH-stat1956
cryopump1958
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > coat > types of > worn by specific people
fool's coat1566
blue coat1576
fisher's coat1611
matinee jacket1882
matinee coat1899
laboratory coatc1936
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > coat > types of > for specific purpose > other
dust-coat1702
hunting-coat1789
pinkc1791
reading-coat1830
wedding-coat1838
zephyr1843
lab coat1895
tea-coat1899
stroller1901
bridge coat1905
sport coat1917
sportster1929
laboratory coatc1936
car coat1956
society > occupation and work > work > [noun] > other types of work
church worka1225
kirk work1418
fieldwork1441
labour of love1592
life's work1660
shop work1696
outwork1707
private practice1724
tide-work1739
sales-work1775
marshing1815
work in progress1815
life-work1837
relief work1844
sharp practice1847
near work1850
slop-work1861
repetition work1866
side work1875
rework1878
wage-slavery1886
work in progress1890
war work1891
busywork1893
screen work1912
staff-work1923
gig work1927
knowledge work1959
WIP1966
telework1970
playwork1986
laboratory work2002
1757 J. Muller Treat. Artillery p. ix The whole [sc. book] concludes with the manner of making the laboratory works, necessary in the course of practice.
1768 J. Muller Treat. Artillery (ed. 2) vii. 189 Laboratory Stores. Fixed fuses 7¾ inches 250.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. IV. 580 Coal-heavers, dust-men, laboratory-men, and others who work among dry, powdery substances.
1860 G. W. S. Piesse Lab. Chem. Wonders 145 As the botanist does with plants so does the laboratory-chemist with the salts.
1866 W. Odling Lect. Animal Chem. iv. 78 Whether the chemist may not effect in his laboratory-machinery a similar intercombination of deoxidised carbonic acid and water.
1870 J. Tyndall Heat (ed. 4) v. §185. 148 My assistant dissolved the substance in a pan over our laboratory fire.
1898 Daily News 8 Feb. 5/2 Most of this evidence has had to be tested by laboratory experiments.
1904 Analyst 29 385 (heading) Laboratory apparatus for steam distillation.
c1936 Catal. Chem. Apparatus (F. E. Becker & Co.) (ed. 25) 54 Laboratory coats, Men's. Strongly made, with step collar, outside breast pocket and two side pockets.
1967 Arch. Neurol. (Chicago) 16 123/2 Laboratory studies of her blood, urine, liver function, cerebrospinal fluid, and thyroid activity were not abnormal.
1999 Nature 26 Aug. 825/1 These results were obtained in small-scale laboratory assays.
2002 Wall St. Jrnl. 9 Apr. d12/6 Multinationals..have long been wary of doing new-drug research in China. They cite concerns about the quality of laboratory work.
C2. In the sense ‘designating an animal used for tests or experiments in a laboratory’, as laboratory animal, laboratory mouse, laboratory rat, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > [noun]
laboratory animal?1891
the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > [noun] > that which is experimented on or with > one who is experimented on
experimenta1678
experimentized1832
experimentee1890
laboratory animal?1891
guinea pig1920
lab rat1979
?1891 Proc. Amer. Soc. Microscopists 1890 12 132 (title) The intramuscular endings of fibers in the skeletal muscles of the domestic and laboratory animals.
1937 Nature 24 July 155/1 Among those using this fish as a ‘laboratory animal’.
1962 Listener 16 Aug. 258/2 An untrained laboratory worm which eats a trained one takes over its responses.
1976 Nature 15 Apr. 608/2 Our experimental group consisted of 100 male and female white laboratory mice.
1996 Times 20 May 16/4 Five particular strains of laboratory mice can be infected both with scrapie from sheep and with BSE from cows.
2001 A. Taylor Death's Own Door (2002) xlvi. 337 The environment was artificial and it made her feel like a laboratory rat.
C3. Instrumental.
laboratory-bred adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > domestic animal > [adjective] > of livestock > kept for breeding > bred in a laboratory
laboratory-bred1910
1910 Lancet 11 June 1631/2 In these latter series of experiments 746 laboratory-bred flies were employed.
1970 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. 82 28 Fertig & Layne emphasize the differences in data gathered from laboratory bred and field collected animals.
2008 Daily Mail (Nexis) 24 May 38 Fifty years in the future, will there still be a human race, or simply a laboratory-bred race of disease-free hybrids?
laboratory-grown adj.
ΚΠ
1897 Bot. Gaz. 24 447 The infection is easily disseminated from both natural and laboratory-grown material.
2003 Washington Post 28 Feb. (Home ed.) a10/4 Earlier this year, scientists at the University of Wisconsin reported the first successful homologous recombination in laboratory-grown human stem cells.
C4.
laboratory assistant n. a person who works in a junior role in a laboratory.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > worker in specific place > [noun] > in laboratory
laboratory assistant1831
laboratory technician1896
lab tech1919
technician1920
lab technician1921
1831 Calcutta Mag. & Monthly Rev. 1 5 It was kept carefully locked up in a casket by itself and never cleaned save by the hands of the laboratory assistant.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) ix. 187 It is possible that certain forms of occupational dermatitis, such as the formalin dermatitis of laboratory assistants, may arise in a similar way.
2002 Times 22 July 29/4 He was only 21 when he was plucked from studenthood by Marie Curie to join her Institut du Radium as a laboratory assistant.
laboratory bench n. a workbench in a laboratory.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > work-benches, seats, etc. > [noun] > work-bench > in laboratory
bench1812
laboratory bench1870
1870 Sci. Opinion 9 Feb. 148/2 A treatise on quantitative analysis..is not intended for systematic study, except at the laboratory bench.
1985 R. Davies What's bred in Bone (1986) v. 291 A laboratory bench whose water supply came from visible, ugly piping.
2001 Guardian 29 Mar. (Science section) 3/2 Innies spend their entire working lives indoors. They are most comfortable sitting at the computer or laboratory bench.
laboratory chest n. rare (now historical) a chest for storing ammunition and explosives.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > equipment for use with firearms > [noun] > ammunition chest
caisson1704
laboratory chest1769
cassoon1801
limber-box1801
limber-chest1888
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine at Mortar A laboratory-chest is to be on board each bomb-vessel..in which all the small stores are to be kept.
1994 P. Harrington Plassey1757 41 A list compiled by Capt.-Lt. Joseph Winter of the Royal Artillery in February 1756 recorded that..stools for drawing knives, a laboratory chest, and sponges, were issued to three naval vessels.
laboratory conditions n. the physical environment under which an experiment or procedure in a laboratory is conducted (which may involve a specified, frequently optimized, temperature, pressure, type of apparatus, etc.); frequently as under laboratory conditions.
ΚΠ
1873 Trans. National Assoc. Promotion Social Sci. 1872 340 But whereas, under certain laboratory conditions, it is possible to take up ammonia from certain solutions; by Blyth's process it is not.
1917 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 56 638 The laboratory conditions as to light intensity, atmospheric humidity and temperature were the same as for the previous experiments.
1976 Business Week (Nexis) 4 Oct. 70 f York has tested its new heat pump under laboratory conditions that simulate winds of 35 mph.
2001 N.Y. Times 14 Aug. (Washington Final ed.) d2/2 Viruses, like Ebola, that are so contagious and difficult to treat..must be studied under the most protected laboratory conditions.
laboratory frame n. Nuclear Physics (more fully laboratory frame of reference) the frame of reference in which a laboratory is stationary, and with respect to which measurements of particle energy, velocity, etc., are generally made.
ΚΠ
1945 J. A. Wheeler & R. P. Feynman in Rev. Mod. Physics 17 165/2 The first and simplest procedure is to look at the particle from a frame of reference moving with nearly its own speed, apply in this frame the expression which we already have, and then transform back to the laboratory frame of reference.
1971 Sci. Amer. June 76/3 The theoretical analysis of events in the rapidly moving frame can be made with some degree of confidence and transformed back to the laboratory frame. In this way theory can be compared with experiment.
2000 J. McFall tr. K. Wille Physics of Particle Accelerators i. 23 We calculate this by applying a Lorentz transformation to obtain the relativistically invariant momentum of the centre of mass in the laboratory frame.
laboratory school n. (a) a laboratory at which students are given scientific instruction; a teaching laboratory (now rare); (b) U.S. an institution affiliated to a college or university, combining both a teacher-training college and a school in which innovative or experimental teaching methods are researched and applied.Laboratory schools (sense (b)) are modelled on the school founded at the University of Chicago in 1896 by John Dewey.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > college or university > [noun] > college > teacher training college > laboratory school
laboratory school1861
lab school1887
demonstration school1896
1861 Daily News 7 Mar. 2/4 The new ranges of buildings..include a large lecture theatre, laboratory school, class-rooms, and photograph rooms.
1900 Science 2 Mar. 354/2 Opportunities for botanical study have been offered..at the Marine Biological Laboratory... It is encouraging to see that already eighteen colleges are coöperating in supporting this laboratory school.
1901 Chicago Tribune 20 Oct. 49 Professor John Dewey..had been conducting an elementary school..and on Jan. 1, 1896, this school was taken into the university in connection with the department of pedagogy, becoming the basis of the laboratory school.
1929 Junior-Senior High School Clearinghouse Nov. 168/1 At the outset the laboratory school was an essential..feature of the teacher-training institution.
2003 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 17 Sept. a26/4 Over the years, she has been torn between teaching needy students at public schools in a city and the excitement of working at a laboratory school in a university.
laboratory system n. Nuclear Physics = laboratory frame n.
ΚΠ
1937 Rev. Mod. Physics 9 171/2 The kinetic energy associated with the relative motion of scattered particle and scattering nucleus is E = M2E0/(M1 + M2) = ½Mv̀2, where v is the velocity of the incident particle in the laboratory system.
2003 R. Trassl in F. J. Currell Physics Multiply & Highly Charged Ions II. xii. 369 To extract an angular-differential cross section from a measured scattering distribution, a transformation between the laboratory system and the center-of-mass system..has to be performed.
laboratory technician n. a person employed in a laboratory to look after equipment or perform tests and procedures.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > worker in specific place > [noun] > in laboratory
laboratory assistant1831
laboratory technician1896
lab tech1919
technician1920
lab technician1921
1896 St Louis Clinique 9 395/1 It [sc. a therapeutic property] is now totally abandoned by the advanced laboratory technicians.
1927 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 27 95/1 The field for laboratory technicians developed largely during the World War.
1990 Times (Nexis) 13 Apr. Four out of 10 [schools] were short of help from trained laboratory technicians.
2008 New Yorker 11 Aug. 54/3 A laboratory technician was testing specimens taken from the eyes of people with bacterial conjunctivitis.
laboratory test n. a scientific test or procedure carried out in a laboratory; spec. a test performed on blood, urine, or other body tissue for the purposes of medical diagnosis; cf. lab n.2 2.
ΚΠ
1859 J. Wilson Our Farm Crops I. 84 Submit these two samples to the laboratory tests, and see what different indications of fertility they would give you of the same soil.
1946 Liberty 25 May 84/2 A discharged sailor..came to the hospital suffering from intermittent fever and chills. Laboratory tests showed amoebic dysentery.
1993 Cat World July 8/3 (advt.) In laboratory tests, new Premium Choice has been proven more effective than any traditional cat litter.
2004 T. J. A. Lehman It's not just Growing Pains xiv. 199 As in every evaluation, a good history, careful physical examination, and appropriate laboratory tests are the key.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1592