cell S3 W2 / sel / 名词 [可数名词]
1 body the smallest part of a living thing that can exist independently
blood/brain/nerve cell
red blood cells
cancer cells
Embryos grow by cell division (= the splitting of cells ) .
2
prison a small room in a prison or police station where prisoners are kept :
He spent a night in the cells at the local police station.
the walls of his prison cell
3 phone American English a cellular phone ; a telephone that you can carry around with you, that works by using a network of radio stations to pass on signals 同义词 mobile British English :
Call me on my cell if you’re running late.
4 electric a piece of equipment for producing electricity from chemicals, heat, or light :
a car powered by electric fuel cells
5 secret group a small group of people who are working secretly as part of a larger political organization :
a terrorist cell
6 religious a small room in a monastery or convent where someone sleeps
7 insect/small animal a small space that an insect or other small creature has made to live in or use :
the cells of a honeycomb
COLLOCATIONS
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + cell
a blood/nerve/brain/muscle etc cell No new brain cells are produced after birth.
a human/animal/plant cell the structure of plant cells
a red cell (= the most common type of blood cell ) The red cells carry the oxygen.
a white cell (= a type of blood cell that defends your body against disease ) In leukaemia there is an abnormal and excessive formation of white cells.
a living/dead cell Every living cell has a nucleus.
normal/abnormal The test enables doctors to detect abnormal cells.
a stem cell (= one that divides and repairs the body, and may be used in medical treatment ) Stem cells may make life-saving treatment possible.
a cancer cell Already there are many treatments which destroy cancer cells.
动词
a cell divides White blood cells divide rapidly.
cell + NOUN
cell division The embryo grows by cell division.
a cell count (= the number of cells in a particular amount of blood ) A healthy person’ s red cell count is close to 1, 000.
THESAURUS
prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial : He was sentenced to five years in prison. | Wandsworth Prison
jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time : This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887. | He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail. | 58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes. | The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing. | Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.
gaol / dʒeɪl / British English another way of spelling jail : He spent the night in gaol.
penitentiary / penətenʃəri, penɪtenʃəri / American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes : the Ohio State Penitentiary | The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater. | the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island
correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison : 1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.
detention centre British English , detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept : Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life. | a juvenile detention center | Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport
open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious : In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.
cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment : a prison cell | Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.