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.
[1913 Webster]
When King Demetrius saw that . . . no resistance was
made against him, he sent away all his forces. --1.
Macc. xi. 38.
[1913 Webster]
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.
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3. A means or method of resisting; that which resists.
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Unfold to us some warlike resistance. --Shak.
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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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
resistance
n 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" [syn: opposition]
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, electrical
resistance, impedance, resistivity, ohmic 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: a secret group organized to overthrow a government or
occupation force [syn: underground]
7: the degree of unresponsiveness of a disease-causing
microorganism to antibiotics or other drugs (as in
penicillin-resistant bacteria)
8: (psychiatry) an unwillingness to bring repressed feelings
into conscious awareness
9: an electrical device that resists the flow of electrical
current [syn: resistor]
10: group action in opposition to those in power
WordNet (r) 2.0
298 Moby Thesaurus words for "resistance":
Charley, VC, Vietcong, acquired immunity, active immunity,
alienation, antagonism, antibody, antigen, antipathy, arrest,
arrestation, arrestment, artificial immunity, autism,
autistic thinking, averseness, aversion, avoidance mechanism,
avoidance reaction, backlash, backwardness, base resistance,
blame-shifting, block, blockage, blocking, bucking, bushfighter,
bushwhacker, callosity, callousness, capacitive reactance, casual,
censorship, challenge, check, clashing, clogging, closing up,
closure, coefficient of friction, cohesiveness, collision,
compensation, conflict, confutation, congenital immunity,
constriction, contention, contradiction, contraposition,
contrariety, contravention, contraversion, contumaciousness,
contumacy, counteraction, counterposition, counterworking, cramp,
crankiness, crosscurrent, crossing, crotchetiness, cursoriness,
decompensation, defence, defense, defense in depth,
defense mechanism, defenses, defiance, delay, denial, density,
dereism, dereistic thinking, detainment, detention,
deterrent capacity, disagreement, disinclination, disobedience,
displacement, disrelish, dissent, dissociation, distaste, drag,
durability, durity, ego defenses, electric resistance,
emitter resistance, emotional insulation, escape,
escape into fantasy, escape mechanism, escapism, familial immunity,
fantasizing, fantasy, fixation, flight, flintiness, fluid friction,
foot-dragging, force of friction, force of viscosity,
forward transfer resistance, fractiousness, friction,
friction head, friction loss, frictional resistance,
grudging consent, grudgingness, guard, guerillas, guerrilla,
hampering, hardiness, hardness, hardness of heart, head wind,
hindering, hindrance, holdback, holdup, immunity, immunization,
impedance, impediment, impenetrability, impugnation, impugnment,
incorrigibility, indisposedness, indisposition, indocility,
indomitability, inductive reactance, induration, infrangibility,
inherent immunity, inherited immunity, inhibition,
input resistance, insuppressibility, interference,
internal friction, interruption, intractability, intractableness,
intransigence, irregular, irrepressibility, isolation, kick,
lack of enthusiasm, lack of zeal, lastingness, leatherlikeness,
let, magnetic reluctance, maquis, maquisard, mutinousness,
natural immunity, negation, negative taxis, negativism, nolition,
nonconformity, nonspecific immunity, nonsusceptibility to disease,
nuisance value, obduracy, obstinacy, obstreperousness, obstruction,
obstructionism, occlusion, ohm, ohmage, opposing, opposition,
opposure, oppugnance, oppugnancy, oppugnation, opsonic immunity,
output resistance, overcompensation, partisan, passive immunity,
perfunctoriness, perverseness, phagocytic immunity, projection,
protection, psychological block, psychological defenses,
psychotaxis, racial immunity, rationalization, reactance, reaction,
rebelliousness, rebutment, rebuttal, recalcitrance, recalcitrancy,
recoil, refractoriness, refusal, rejection, reluctance,
reluctivity, renitence, renitency, repercussion, repression,
repugnance, resistance fighter, restiveness, restraint,
restriction, retardation, retardment, revolt, rolling friction,
ropiness, self-defense, self-preservation, self-protection,
setback, shrewishness, skin effect, skin friction,
sliding friction, slip friction, slowness,
sociological adjustive reactions, solidity, specific immunity,
specific reluctance, squeeze, stamina, standing against,
starting friction, static friction, steeliness, stiffness,
stoniness, stranglehold, strength, stricture, stringiness,
stubbornness, sublimation, substitution, sulk, sulkiness, sulks,
sullenness, suppression, surface resistance, swimming upstream,
tenacity, the defensive, toughness, toxin-antitoxin immunity,
traversal, unbreakability, unbreakableness, uncontrollability,
undercurrent, underground, underground fighter, unenthusiasm,
ungovernability, unmalleability, unmanageability, unmoldableness,
unruliness, unsubmissiveness, untamableness, unwillingness,
viscidity, vitality, volume resistance, ward, wildness,
wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking, withdrawal
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
RESISTANCE. The opposition of force to force.
2. Resistance is either lawful or unlawful. 1. It is lawful to resist
one who is in the act of committing a felony or other crime, or who
maliciously endeavors to commit such felony or crime. See self defence. And
a man may oppose force to force against one who endeavors to make an arrest,
or to enter his house without lawful authority for the purpose; or, if in
certain cases he abuse such authority, and do more than he was authorized to
do; or if it turn out in the result he has no right to enter, then the party
about to be imprisoned, or whose house is about to be illegally entered, may
resist the illegal imprisonment or entry by self-defence, not using any
dangerous weapons, and may escape, be rescued, or even break prison, and
others may assist him in so doing. 5 Taunt. 765; 1 B. & Adol, 166; 1 East,
P. C. 295; 5 East, 304; 1 Chit. Pr. 634. See Regular and Irregular Process.
3.-2. Resistance is unlawful when the persons having a lawful
authority to arrest, apprehend, or imprison, or otherwise to advance or
execute the public justice of the country, either civil or criminal, and
using the proper means for that purpose, are resisted in so doing; and if
the party guilty of such resistance, or others assisting him, be killed in
the struggle, such homicide is justifiable; while on the other hand, if the
officer be killed, it will, at common law, be murder in those who resist.
Fost. 270; 1 Hale, 457; 1 East, P. C. 305.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
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