Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

re·sis·tance       (rĭ-zĭs'təns)  Pronunciation Key  n.   The act or an instance of resisting or the capacity to resist. A force that tends to oppose or retard motion. often Resistance An underground organization engaged in a struggle for national liberation in a country under military or totalitarian occupation. Psychology A process in which the ego opposes the conscious recall of anxiety-producing experiences. Biology The capacity of an organism to defend itself against a disease. The capacity of an organism or a tissue to withstand the effects of a harmful environmental agent. Electricity The opposition of a body or substance to current passing through it, resulting in a change of electrical energy into heat or another form of energy. re·sis'tant adj.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

resistance
noun
1.	the action of opposing something that you disapprove or disagree with; "he encountered a general feeling of resistance from many citizens"; "despite opposition from the newspapers he went ahead"
2.	any mechanical force that tends to retard or oppose motion
3.	a material's opposition to the flow of electric current; measured in ohms [syn: electric resistance]
4.	the military action of resisting the enemy's advance; "the enemy offered little resistance"
5.	(medicine) the condition in which an organism can resist disease [syn: immunity]
6.	the capacity of an organism to defend itself against harmful environmental agents; "these trees are widely planted because of their resistance to salt and smog"
7.	a secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force [syn: underground]
8.	the degree of unresponsiveness of a disease-causing microorganism to antibiotics or other drugs (as in penicillin-resistant bacteria)
9.	(psychiatry) an unwillingness to bring repressed feelings into conscious awareness
10.	an electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current [syn: resistor]
11.	group action in opposition to those in power

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

resistance

see least resistance.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

resistance       (rĭ-zĭs'təns)  Pronunciation Key  A force, such as friction, that operates opposite the direction of motion of a body and tends to prevent or slow down the body's motion. A measure of the degree to which a substance impedes the flow of electric current induced by a voltage. Resistance is measured in ohms. Good conductors, such as copper, have low resistance. Good insulators, such as rubber, have high resistance. Resistance causes electrical energy to be dissipated as heat. See also Ohm's law. The capacity of an organism, tissue, or cell to withstand the effects of a harmful physical or environmental agent, such as a microorganism or pollutant.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
resistance

In electricity, a measurement of the difficulty encountered by a power source in forcing electric current through an electrical circuit, and hence the amount of power dissipated in the circuit. Resistance is measured in ohms.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

resistance re·sis·tance (rĭ-zĭs'təns)
n.

1. The capacity of an organism to defend itself against a disease.
2. The capacity of an organism, a tissue, or a cell to withstand the effects of a harmful physical or environmental agent.
3. The opposition of a body or substance to current passing through it, resulting in a change of electrical energy into heat or another form of energy.
4. In psychoanalysis, a process in which the ego opposes the conscious recall of repressed unpleasant experiences.

Wallstreet Words - Cite This Source - Share This

resistance

An increased supply of a security. Compare support.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Resistance

Re*sist"ance\ (-ans), n. [F. r['e]sistance, LL. resistentia, fr. resistens, - entis, p. pr. See Resist.]

1. The act of resisting; opposition, passive or active.

When King Demetrius saw that . . . no resistance was made against him, he sent away all his forces. --1. Macc. xi. 38.

2. (Physics) The quality of not yielding to force or external pressure; that power of a body which acts in opposition to the impulse or pressure of another, or which prevents the effect of another power; as, the resistance of the air to a body passing through it; the resistance of a target to projectiles.

3. A means or method of resisting; that which resists.

Unfold to us some warlike resistance. --Shak.

4. (Elec.) A certain hindrance or opposition to the passage of an electrical current or discharge offered by conducting bodies. It bears an inverse relation to the conductivity, -- good conductors having a small resistance, while poor conductors or insulators have a very high resistance. The unit of resistance is the ohm.

Resistance box (Elec.), a rheostat consisting of a box or case containing a number of resistance coils of standard values so arranged that they can be combined in various ways to afford more or less resistance.

Resistance coil (Elec.), a coil of wire introduced into an electric circuit to increase the resistance.

Solid of least resistance (Mech.), a solid of such a form as to experience, in moving in a fluid, less resistance than any other solid having the same base, height, and volume.