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Sperm   Listen
noun
Sperm  n.  (Physiol.) The male fecundating fluid; semen. See Semen.
Sperm cell (Physiol.), one of the cells from which the spermatozoids are developed.
Sperm morula. (Biol.) Same as Spermosphere.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sperm" Quotes from Famous Books



... fact has been observed that, for ages after life appeared on the earth, the male had no separate existence; that the two sex-principles, the sperm and the germ, were contained within one and the same individual. Through the processes of differentiation, however, these elements became detached, and with the separation of the male from the ...
— The God-Idea of the Ancients - or Sex in Religion • Eliza Burt Gamble

... organs, the ovary in the female and the testicle in the male, in addition to producing the female egg (ovum) and the male seed (sperm), respectively, produce substances of unknown character that have hugely important roles in the establishment of mind, temperament and ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson

... all manufactures thereof, tallow, tallow candles, soap, fish, beef, pork, hams, bacon, tongues, butter, lard, cheese, rice, Indian corn and meal, potatoes, wheat, rye, oats, and all other grain, rye meal and oat meal, flour, whale and sperm oil, clocks, boots and shoes, pumps, bootees and slippers, bonnets, hats, caps, beer, ale, porter, cider, timber, boards, planks, scantling, shingles, laths, pitch, tar, rosin, turpentine, spirits of turpentine, ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Polk - Section 3 (of 3) of Volume 4: James Knox Polk • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... was high studded, furnished in black walnut and haircloth, a pair of tall walnut cases filled with books against one wall, on the opposite wall a libellous oil portrait of the judge's wife, who died twenty years before, and a pair of steel engravings depicting "Sperm Whale Fishing in the Arctic"; No. 1, portraying "The Chase," No. 2, "the Capture." Beneath these stood a marble-topped table upon which were neatly piled four gigantic volumes, bound copies of Harper's Weekly, 1861 to '65, the Civil ...
— Fair Harbor • Joseph Crosby Lincoln

... kerosene light with the flame turned down to remain in the sick-room. Use the lamp with the flame carefully shaded, or in an adjoining room, or better still, use a sperm candle ...
— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell

... Since, indeed, Though she thou lovest now be far away, Yet idol-images of her are near And the sweet name is floating in thy ear. But it behooves to flee those images; And scare afar whatever feeds thy love; And turn elsewhere thy mind; and vent the sperm, Within thee gathered, into sundry bodies, Nor, with thy thoughts still busied with one love, Keep it for one delight, and so store up Care for thyself and pain inevitable. For, lo, the ulcer just by nourishing ...
— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius

... the property of Messrs. Enderby & Sons, arrived at Sydney on October 14th, 1791, and reported that vast numbers of sperm whales were seen after doubling the south-west cape of Van Diemen's Land. Whaling vessels were fitted out in Sydney, and it was found that money could be made by oil and whalebone as well as by rum. Sealing was also pursued ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale

... the perfumery, the corks, the straw-hats, the cottons and cambrics, the dressed skins, the thrown silk, and even (from an incidental charge with respect to the charge of duty on the bottles) the wines of France; by the salt provisions, the ashes, the turpentine, the rice, the furs and skins, the sperm oil of America; and she in particular may expect to derive advantage from the alteration in our colonial import duties upon the great articles of flour, salt, provisions, fish ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 • Various

... of tar and sperm-oil! But at intervals she thinks, I know, Of those days which we, afar from turmoil, ...
— Fly Leaves • C. S. Calverley

... commission. According to her papers she might go whither she pleased—whaling, sealing, or anything else. Sperm whaling, however, was what she relied upon; though, as yet, only two fish had been ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville

... have no difficulty in getting a sovereign per pound for it at Hong Kong. Ambergris—I may as well mention, for the information of those who do not know—is said to be a secretion formed in the intestines of the sperm whale, as a result of disease. It is greatly in demand in the East generally, for a variety of purposes—medicinal, among others—but its chief use seems to be in the manufacture of perfumes. It is not often found, and, the supply being very limited, it commands a high price in ...
— The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" • Harry Collingwood

... what I want. Don't think I'm being professional. Remember, I've taken Sperm at his word, and spoken more frankly to you than ever I've done in ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates

... Sponge at his elbow, Mr. Bottleends, the butler—'delirius tremendous,' as Bottleends called it, having quite incapacitated Sir Harry—wrote off for champagne from this man, sherry from that, turtle from a third, turbot from a fourth, tea from a fifth, truffles from a sixth, wax-lights from one, sperm from another; and down came the things with such alacrity, such thanks for the past and hopes for the future, as we poor devils of the untitled world are quite unacquainted with. Nay, not content with giving him the goods, many of the poor demented creatures actually paraded ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... mollusk, about an inch and a half long. It catches its dinner by rushing through the water with its immense jaws wide open. When its mouth is full, it ejects the water, while the whalebone fringe with which it is provided catches all the little sea-creatures, which serve as food for the monster. The sperm-whale has a much larger throat, and is said to be able to swallow ...
— Harper's Young People, April 6, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... produced mainly by friction with a warm iron, and may be put on linen by almost any person. The linen to be glazed receives as much strong starch as it is possible to charge it with, then it is dried. To each pound of starch a piece of sperm or white wax, about the size of a walnut, is usually added. When ready to be ironed, the linen is laid upon the table and moistened very lightly on the surface with a clean wet cloth. It is then ironed in the usual way with ...
— Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife • Marion Mills Miller

... throwing his tail high in the air. He was so near that we had a perfect view of him and as may be supposed, had no desire to see him nearer. He was a disgusting creature; with a skin rough, hairy, and of an iron-grey color. This kind differs much from the sperm, in color and skin, and is said to be fiercer. We saw a few sperm whales; but most of the whales that come upon the coast are fin-backs, hump-backs, and right-whales, which are more difficult to take, and are said not to ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... cared Dicky and Prue, or Dudley and Flaxy, or all the rest sitting cosily around that charming fire, which glowed as if some kind fairy had filled up the little black grate with carbuncles and rubies? Over the mantle-piece were branches of pretty white sperm candles, whose light fell softly on the heavy red curtains and the roses in the carpet, and danced in the eyes of the ...
— The Old Castle and Other Stories • Anonymous

... down over the ridge of his nose, before he caught them in his mouth and articulated them—"ye see, sir, watches is delicat things. They're not to be traitet like fowk's insides wi' onything 'at comes first. Gin I cud jist get the middle half-pint oot o' the hert o' a hogsheid o' sperm ile, I wad I sud keep a' yer watches gaein like the verra universe. But it wad be an ill thing for me, ye ken. Sae maybe a' thing's for the best efter a'.—Noo, ye see, i' this het weather, the ile keeps fine an' saft, and disna clog ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald

... attached to one or more of its contents from which it draws its nourishment (abdominal gestation). Undoubted cases of the first and last varieties are recorded as occurring in the cow. The explanation of such cases is to be found in the fact that the actively moving sperm cells (spermatozoa) thrown into the womb have made their way through the Fallopian tubes to the ovary. If they met and impregnated an ovum in the tube, and if the consequent growth of that ovum ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... shelf to shelf, we find the tenants of the tower serially disposed in order of their magnitude:—gannets, black and speckled haglets, jays, sea-hens, sperm-whale-birds, gulls of all varieties:—thrones, princedoms, powers, dominating one above another in senatorial array; while, sprinkled over all, like an ever-repeated fly in a great piece of broidery, the stormy ...
— The Piazza Tales • Herman Melville

... led to the Prince of Monaco's discovery of nearly a dozen new forms in the summer of 1895, a discovery in which the before-mentioned tentacle was included. It chanced that a cachalot was killed off Terceira by some sperm whalers, and in its last struggles charged almost to the Prince's yacht, missed it, rolled under, and died within twenty yards of his rudder. And in its agony it threw up a number of large objects, which the Prince, dimly perceiving they were strange and ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... good whales lay, the happy sleepy beasts, upon the still oily sea. They were all right whales, you must know, and finners, and razor-backs, and bottle-noses, and spotted sea-unicorns with long ivory horns. But the sperm whales are such raging, ramping, roaring, rumbustious fellows, that, if Mother Carey let them in, there would be no more peace in Peacepool. So she packs them away in a great pond by themselves at ...
— The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby • Charles Kingsley

... himself. He had only to get washed overboard in a gale, or to walk over in a drunken fit, to leave his shipmates in a fix of the most unpleasant description, ignorant of latitude, longitude, and of everything else necessary to be known to guide the vessel on her course. And as to the sperm whales, which Jermin had promised them in such abundance that they would only have to strike and take, not a single fin showed itself. At last the captain was reported dying, and the mate took counsel ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847 • Various

... interest physiologically, as showing the wide limits of possible variation which thus may even involve the sex, "for an ovule to develop pollen within its interior," says Mr. Salter, "is equivalent to an ovum in an animal being converted into a capsule of spermatozoa. It is a conversion of germ into sperm, the most complete violation of individuality and unity of sex. * * * * The occurrence of an antheroid ovule and a normal ovule on the same carpellary leaf realises the simplest and the most absolute form ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters

... noblest inhabitant of the waters. It is protected from the cold by a case or coating of blubber, that is, a thick oily fat from which the oil is made; numbers of them are caught for the sake of that. Ambergris, highly prized in perfumery, is a product of the sperm whale. ...
— A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery • Benziger Brothers

... Clifford Allbutt's view probably had reference to the fact that the sperm-cell goes, or is carried, to the germ-cell, never vice versa. In this letter Darwin gives the reason for the "law" referred to. Mr. A.R. Wallace has been good enough to give us the following note:—"It was at this time that my paper on 'Protective Resemblance' first ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin

... (ashjar anber); though what the Arabic author meant by "trees of ambergris" is more than I can say. The word anber (pro. pounced amber) signifies also "saffron"; but the obbligato juxtaposition of aloes and sandal-wood tends to show that what is meant is the well-known product of the sperm-whale. It is possible that the mention of this latter may be an interpolation by some ignorant copyist, who, seeing two only of the three favourite Oriental scents named, took upon himself to complete the odoriferous ...
— Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp • John Payne

... years whale oil was burned in large lamps, and thousands of whales were killed in order to get the oil. Candles were also made from spermaceti, which is a substance taken from the head of the sperm whale. ...
— Stories of American Life and Adventure • Edward Eggleston

... spermatozoa are exceedingly delicate and minute; they constitute the greatest part of the semen, or sperm. They are peculiar shaped bodies, having a head, body, and tail, as illustrated in the accompanying figure, and they can only be seen by powerful magnifying ...
— Treatise on the Diseases of Women • Lydia E. Pinkham

... swift as a fawn Nina ran noiselessly from room to room, gathering up lamp after lamp, and candle after candle, and bringing them to the sick chamber, which blazed as if on fire, while the musical laugh of the lunatic echoed through the room as she whispered to herself, "Twenty sperm candles and fifteen lamps! 'Tis a glorious ...
— Darkness and Daylight • Mary J. Holmes

... I am to discover you—once so rich and important in the world, now forgotten and sunken and deserted, except for an old seasoned sea captain here and there, smoking about, dreaming as you imagine, of the China trade or the lordly days of the old sperm fishery, and looking wistfully out toward the last port.... Venice or Nantucket—I can hardly say which is more dream-like or alluring, or sad with the goneness of its glory.... I'd love to show you, because I know every stick ...
— Fate Knocks at the Door - A Novel • Will Levington Comfort

... man's ghost, encountering the first unknown phantom in the other world; neither of these can feel stranger and stronger emotions than that man does, who for the first time finds himself pulling into the charmed, churned circle of the hunted sperm whale. ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin

... matter obtained in an oily state from the head of the sperm-whale inhabiting the Pacific and Indian Oceans; candles made of it yield a particularly steady ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... I perceived two beams projecting from the low ceiling, in the manner of the beams in a ship's cabin. Prints commemorative of political events, and the old family portraits, hung about the room; common straw matting covered the floor, and two candlesticks, bearing sperm candles, ornamented the mantle-piece. The personal appearance of the ex-President himself corresponds with the simplicity of his furniture. He resembles rather a substantial, well-fed farmer, than one who has wielded the destinies of this ...
— Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams - Sixth President of the Unied States • William H. Seward

... beauties beside him, he seems to have meant in "The White Whale" to go back to his earlier manner, to write an accurate though highly personal account of the whaler's life, and to that end had assembled a mass of information upon the sperm whale to add to his own memories. Very literally the story begins as an autobiography; even the elemental figure of the cannibal, Queequeg, with his incongruous idol and harpoon in a New Bedford lodging house, does not warn of what is ...
— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby

... bird or beast, forms a true egg which must be fertilized by the male sperm cell before the offspring can develop. In the mammal, if fertilization does not occur, the egg which is inconspicuous, passes out of the body and is lost. If fertilized, it passes into the womb where the young develops through the embryonic stages, ...
— The Dollar Hen • Milo M. Hastings

... their neighbours of Newburg and Hudson to imitate their enterprise; many ships, the joint property of the most spirited of the community, being now yearly fitted out in these places, and sent to hunt the sperm-whale ...
— Impressions of America - During the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Tyrone Power

... investigations have proved, this circumstance—that, as a result of gonorrhea, the male sperm no longer contains any seed-cells, and the man is, consequently, incapacitated for life from begetting children—is a comparatively frequent cause of matrimonial barrenness, in contradiction to the old and convenient tradition of the lords of creation, who are ever ready ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... and body of man are united in this way: When a woman has conceived, the Angel of the Night, Lailah, carries the sperm before God, and God decrees what manner of human being shall become of it—whether it shall be male or female, strong or weak, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, long or short, fat or thin, and what all its other qualities shall be. ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... looks like someone you know?" George asked. "I'd like to know who it is just out of curiosity. As you are aware, no one but the Genetic Panel knows whose sperm is used to impregnate ...
— Mother America • Sam McClatchie

... marriages. An albino is a homozygote; that is, all its gametes are carrying the character of albinism and none of them bear the alternative character —the allelomorph—-of pigmentation. By pigmentation is here meant all those factors which go to its production. Now such a gametic (egg or sperm) constitution can only result when two individuals, all or some of whose gametes are pure with regard to the character albinism, meet in fertilization. Hence it is readily seen that it is among cousin marriages ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia



Words linked to "Sperm" :   sperm oil, sperm whale, spermatic, spermatozoan, seed, seminal fluid, sperm-filled, sperm bank, semen, cum, acrosome, pygmy sperm whale, dwarf sperm whale, male reproductive system, ejaculate, come, flagellum, sperm count, spermatozoon, spermous



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