See Also: internal(dictionary)
internal ear(medicine)
internal(dictionary)
Ear, internal(health)
Internal(medicine)
internal energy(medicine)
internal fistula(medicine)
internal fixators(medicine)
internal haemorrhoids(medicine)
internal hernia(medicine)

internal (iou)



internal adjective & noun. E16.
[mod. Latin internalis, from Latin internus: see INTERN noun & adjective, -AL1.]
A. adjective.
Of or pertaining to the mind or soul, mental or spiritual; of or pertaining to the inner nature of a thing, intrinsic. E16.
P. Barker Those who were compelled to talk to themselves, thrashing out some unending internal feud.
Of or pertaining to the inside or interior of something; within the limits of something; spec. of or affecting the inside of a body. L17.
B. Bainbridge The Connolly woman has internal bleeding from a boot in her belly. M. Rule The whole of the internal structure was unstable and inherently dangerous.
b. Anatomy. Situated further from the surface of the body, or nearer the median line. Opp. external. M19.
Of or pertaining to the domestic affairs of a nation. L18.
R. Niebuhr Social inequality leads not only to internal strife but to conflict between various national communities.
Designating a student or examiner who is in residence at a university as well as taking or marking its examinations. L19.
Used or applying within an organization. M20.
M. Frayn He put down the outside phone and picked up the internal one.
Special collocations: internal clock a person's innate sense of time; Biology = BIOLOGICAL clock. internal-combustion engine: with its motive power generated by the explosion of gases or vapour with air in a cylinder. internal conversion Physics (a) transfer of the whole energy of a gamma-ray photon emitted by a nucleus to an orbital electron; (b) radiationless transition of an excited molecule from one electronic energy state to another of the same multiplicity. internal ear: see EAR noun1. internal energy Physics the energy possessed by a system in consequence of the positions, relative motions, and interactions of its components. internal evidence: derived from the content of the thing discussed. internal exile penal banishment from a part of one's own country. internal friction resistance to the deformation or flow of a substance, arising from the interaction of component molecules etc. internal medicine the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of disease by medical as opp. to surgical means. internal object Psychoanalysis a fantasized subjective image of an object as the target of emotions otherwise directed at the object itself. internal pressure: arising in a liquid from intermolecular attraction. internal property Philosophy a property belonging essentially to an object or proposition. internal RELATION. internal rhyme: involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next. internal revenue US inland revenue. internal secretion Physiology the secretion of substances into the blood; a substance secreted into the blood, esp. a hormone. internal stress: arising within a substance (e.g. through differential heating), not imposed from without.
b. noun.
An intrinsic or essential attribute, quality, etc. Now only in pl. M17.
The inner nature or soul. M17-L18.
A medicine or remedy to be taken internally. L17-E18.
inter'nality noun the quality or fact of being internal E19.
internally adverb L16.