siphon

 siphon on Wikipedia

• syphon

From Middle French siphon, from Old French sifon, from Latin sipho, from Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn, “pipe, tube”), of uncertain origin; possibly related to Latin tibia (“pipe, flute of bone”), with the irregular forms suggesting a non-Indo-European loan source, perhaps of the shape *twi-, *twibh.

• Rhymes: -aɪfən
• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪfən/

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siphon (plural siphons)

1. A bent pipe or tube with one end lower than the other, in which hydrostatic pressure exerted due to the force of gravity moves liquid from one reservoir to another.
   • 1891, Charles Hilton Fagge, Philip Henry Pye-Smith, Text‐book of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, volume II, page 199:

     The asserted fact that free hydrochloric acid is absent from the fluid removed by a siphon in cases of cancer of the stomach has been lately much discussed in Germany, and Dr Van der Welden, of Strassburg, introduced an alcoholic solution of tropæolin as a test with this object.

2. A soda siphon.
3. (zoology) A tubelike organ found in animals or elongated cell found in plants.
   • 1962, Fish Bulletin, numbers 118-130, Department of Fish and Game, page 48:

     As a result, although corbinas commonly utilize mollusks, they are limited to the siphons, foot, or other soft parts that either extend from the shell or can be picked from it.

siphon (third-person singular simple present siphons, present participle siphoning, simple past and past participle siphoned)

1. (transitive) To transfer (liquid) by means of a siphon.

   He used a rubber tube to siphon petrol from the car's fuel tank.

2. (transitive, by extension) To transfer directly.
   • 2012 Sep, Rupert Christiansen, “Quiet, Please”, in Literary Review:

     Today's teenagers are siphoning dangerous levels of membrane-damaging noise directly into their eardrums, with long-term effects that otologists prophesy will be disastrous for their hearing and lead to an epidemic of middle-aged deafness in the next thirty years.

3. (transitive, figurative, often with "off") To steal or skim off something, such as money, in small amounts; to embezzle.
   • 2009, Alan Dean Foster, Montezuma Strip, →ISBN:

     In Juchipila power to the whole community of thirty thousand evaporated as the supraheavy grid buried alongside the little mountain cantina siphoned energy from the entire west-central portion of the Namerican national power net.

   • 2010, John Townsend, Now What Do I Do?:

     Attempting to “unfeel” whatever you feel is a huge drain on your energy, and that effort can siphon off the power you need to crunch your problem.

• seep
• sip

• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

• Pinhos, Pishon

French Wikipedia has an article on:

siphon

Wikipedia ^fr

From Latin sīphō from Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn, “pipe, tube”), of unknown ultimate origin.

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siphon m (plural siphons)

1. siphon

• siphonner

• “siphon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.