valve´like´

valve «valv», noun, verb, valved, valv|ing.

–n.

1. a movable part that controls the flow of a liquid or gas through a pipe or out of an enclosed space by opening or closing the passage. A faucet contains a valve.

2. a part of the body that works like a valve. The valves of the heart are membranes that control the flow of blood into and out of the heart.

3. one of the two or more parts of hinged shells like those of oysters and clams, or the whole shell when it is in one piece, as in snails.

4. Botany. a) one of the halves or sections formed when a seed vessel bursts open. b) a section that opens like a lid when an anther opens. c) either of the halves of the shell of a diatom.

5. Electronics. a) any device permitting the passage of electric current in one direction only. b) Especially British. a vacuum tube or electron tube.

6. Music. a device in certain brass wind instruments, such as trumpets and French horns, connected with subsidiary loops of tubing, for changing the pitch of a tone by changing the length and direction of the column of air. There are two types of valves, the piston and the rotary cylinder.

7. a door or gate controlling the flow of water in a sluice.

8. Archaic. either one of the halves or leaves of a double or folding door.

–v.t.

1. to control the flow of (a liquid, gas, or stream of electrons) by a valve.

2. to discharge (gas) from a balloon by opening a valve.

3. to furnish with a valve or valves.

–v.i.

1. to make use of a valve or valves.

2. to open a valve of a balloon in order to descend.

╂[< Latin valva one of a pair of folding doors; leaf of a door]

–valve´like´, adjective.