Category: W

  • Waiver of liability

    An agreement between the club and the participant that if the club permits the participant to exercise in its facility, the participant agrees not to sue the club should the participant become injured.  

  • Waist circumference

    A simple predictor of obesityrelated health risk by measuring the circumference of the waist, which takes into account internal fat stores carried in the abdominal area that are associated with metabolic disease. A measurement that when greater than 40 inches in men, or 36 inches in women, defines a form of obesity that confers particularly…

  • Winged fruit/seed

    Winged fruit/seed

    A thin, flat extension or projection from the side or tip of a seed.  

  • Warty

    Warty

    Covered with wartlike structures.  

  • Wound infection

    Invasion of the site of trauma by pathogenic microorganisms. All kinds of wounds are vulnerable to bacterial infection, which can hinder the healing process, lead to disability, or even be fatal. Signs of an infected wound include redness, swelling, warmth, and pain, and sometimes the emergence of pus or the development of an abscess. The…

  • White blood cell

    A type of cell in the immune system that helps the body fight infection and disease. White blood cells include lymphocytes, granulocytes, macrophages, and others. A colourless blood cell which contains a nucleus but has no haemoglobin, is formed in bone marrow and creates antibodies. Cell that does not contain hemoglobin and which helps defend…

  • Wort

    From the old English wyrt, meaning a root or plant. In herbalism, an herb, usually used as a combined term, e.g., St. John’s wort, liverwort. An Anglo-Saxon word for an herb. A liquid that is created by infusing unfermented malt is commonly referred to as “Wort.” This term can also be used to describe an…

  • Weed

    Weed

    Derogatory term for a plant, similar to a racial epithet. A plant that aggressively colonizes disturbed habitats or places where it is not wanted. Plant of disturbed habitats and perceived by the observer to be in the wrong place, like a dandelion, or a rose in a cabbage patch. Any plant that is unwanted and…

  • Woolly

    With dense matted long curled hairs. Clothed with entangled, soft hair. Having soft, wool-like hairs.  

  • Woody

    Made of wood or wood-like tissue, often due to secondary growth. Hard, not quickly withering and dying like green stems. A stem which may not be big enough to use as timber but which contains hardened cells and is more or less permanent It is characteristic of trees and shrubs, but some climbers, such as…