re|sist|ance

re|sist|ance «rih ZIHS tuhns», noun.

1. the act of resisting: »

The bank clerk made no resistance to the robbers.

2. the power to resist: »

She has little resistance to germs and so is often ill. Get enough sleep and eat well-balanced meals to help keep up resistance built up during the cold months (Time).

3. a thing or act that resists; opposing force; opposition: »

An airplane can overcome the resistance of the air and go in the desired direction, but an ordinary balloon just drifts.

4. the property of a conductor that opposes the passage of an electric current and changes electric energy into heat. Copper has a low resistance. »

Resistance is the electrical counterpart of friction, and can serve the same damping function (Roy F. Allison).

5. a conductor, coil, etc., that offers resistance.

6. Physics an opposing force, especially one tending to prevent motion.

╂[< Middle French resistance, alteration of earlier résisten< résister resist < Latin resistere; see etym. under resist (Cf. ↑resist)]

Re|sist|ance «rih ZIHS tuhns», noun.

the people who secretly organize and fight for their freedom in a country occupied and controlled by a foreign power: »

the French Resistance in World War II.