Princeton's WordNet

1. resistance, opposition(noun)

   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"

2. resistance(noun)

   any mechanical force that tends to retard or oppose motion

3. electric resistance, electrical resistance, impedance, resistance, resistivity, ohmic resistance(noun)

   a material's opposition to the flow of electric current; measured in ohms

4. resistance(noun)

   the military action of resisting the enemy's advance

   "the enemy offered little resistance"

5. immunity, resistance(noun)

   (medicine) the condition in which an organism can resist disease

6. resistance(noun)

   the capacity of an organism to defend itself against harmful environmental agents

   "these trees are widely planted because of their resistance to salt and smog"

7. underground, resistance(noun)

   a secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force

8. resistance(noun)

   the degree of unresponsiveness of a disease-causing microorganism to antibiotics or other drugs (as in penicillin-resistant bacteria)

9. resistance(noun)

   (psychiatry) an unwillingness to bring repressed feelings into conscious awareness

10. resistor, resistance(noun)

    an electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current

11. resistance(noun)

    group action in opposition to those in power

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

1. resistance(noun)ɪˈzɪs təns

   when sb opposes or challenges sth

   her resistance to change; their resistance against NATO rules

2. resistanceɪˈzɪs təns

   when sb fights back against an attack

   He was so strong that resistance was useless.; Villagers put up heavy resistance to the rebel attack.

3. resistanceɪˈzɪs təns

   the ability to not be harmed or damaged

   The insects developed a resistance to the chemicals.

4. resistanceɪˈzɪs təns

   a force that slows motion

   wind resistance

Wiktionary

1. resistance(Noun)

   The act of resisting, or the capacity to resist.

2. resistance(Noun)

   A force that tends to oppose motion.

3. resistance(Noun)

   Shortened form of electrical resistance.

4. resistance(Noun)

   An underground organization engaged in a struggle for liberation from forceful occupation.

5. resistance(Noun)

   The genitals.

Origin: From résistance

Webster Dictionary

1. Resistance(noun)

   the act of resisting; opposition, passive or active

2. Resistance(noun)

   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

3. Resistance(noun)

   a means or method of resisting; that which resists

4. Resistance(noun)

   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

The Standard Electrical Dictionary

1. Resistance

   (a) The quality of an electric conductor, in virtue of which it opposes the passage of an electric current, causing the disappearance of electro-motive force if a current passes through it, and converting electric energy into heat energy in the passage of a current through it. If a current passes through a conductor of uniform resistance there is a uniform fall of potential all along its length. If of uneven resistance the fall in potential varies with the resistance. (See Potential, Fall of.) The fall of potential is thus expressed by Daniell. "In a conductor, say a wire, along which a current is steadily and uniformly passing, there is no internal accumulation of electricity, no density of internal distribution; there is, on the other hand, an unequally distributed charge of electricity on the surface of the wire, which results in a potential diminishing within the wire from one end of the wire to the other." Resistance varies inversely with the cross section of a cylindrical or prismatic conductor, in general with the average cross-section of any conductor, and in the same sense directly with its true or average or virtual length. It varies for different substances, and for different conditions as of temperature and pressure for the same substance. A rise of temperature in metals increases the resistance, in some bad conductors a rise of temperature decreases the resistance. Approximately, with the exception of iron and mercury, the resistance of a metallic conductor varies with the absolute temperature. This is very roughly approximate. Except for resistance energy would not be expended in maintaining a current through a circuit. The resistance of a conductor may be supposed to have its seat and cause in the jumps from molecule to molecule, which the current has to take in going through it. If so a current confined to a molecule would, if once started, persist because there would be no resistance in a molecule. Hence on this theory the Ampérian currents (see Magnetism, Ampere's Theory of) would require no energy for their maintenance and Ampére's theory would become a possible truth. When metals melt their resistance suddenly increases. Light rays falling on some substances, notably selenium, q. v., vary the resistance. Longitudinal stretching of a conductor decreases it, it increases with longitudinal compression, and increases in iron and diminishes in tin and zinc when a transverse stress tends to widen the conductor. (b) The term resistance is used to express any object or conductor used in circuit to develop resistance. [Transcriber's note: At room temperatures, the thermal motion of ions in the conductor's crystal lattice scatters the electrons of the current. Imperfections of the lattice contribute slightly. At low temperatures superconductivity (zero resistance) can occur because an energy gap between the electrons and the crystal lattice prevents any interaction. At the time of this book, none of this was known. "Jumps from molecule to molecule" is a good guess.]

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