induction

Noun

induction (countable and uncountable, plural inductions)

1. An act of inducting.
   • I know not you; nor am I well pleased to make this time, as the affair now stands, the induction of your acquaintance.1612–1613, Nathan Field, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Honest Mans Fortune”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647...
   • These promises are fair, the parties sure, / And our induction full of prosperous hope.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
   1. A formal ceremony in which a person is appointed to an office or into military service.
      • [Strom] Thurmond also condemned [Bayard] Rustin for having refusing ^([sic]) military induction as a conscientious objector.2006 February 24, Leslie Feinberg, “Civil rights leaders faced red-baiting, gay-baiting”, in Workers World
   2. The process of showing a newcomer around a place where they will work or study.
      • Near-synonym: orientation
2. An act of inducing.
   • One of the first examples of the immunogenicity of recombinantly derived antibodies was with murine anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (OKT3) used in the induction of immunosupression after organ transplantation.2002, Gilbert S. Banker, Christopher T. Rhodes, Modern Pharmaceutics, 4th edition, Informa Health Care, →ISBN, page 699
   1. Generation of an electric current by a varying magnetic field.
   2. Derivation of general principles from specific instances.
      • Meronym: abstraction
      • For the most part they contented themselves with repeating a few familiar facts or adding a few fresh theories ; they did not attempt a wide induction on the basis of a systematic collection and classification of the evidence.1910, James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, volume 1, page vii
   3. A method of proof of a theorem by first proving it for a specific case (often an integer; usually 0 or 1) and showing that, if it is true for one case then it must be true for the next.
   4. Use of rumors to twist and complicate the plot of a play or to narrate in a way that does not have to state truth nor fact within the play.
   5. Given a group of cells that emits or displays a substance, the influence of this substance on the fate of a second group of cells.
   6. The delivery of air to the cylinders of an internal combustion piston engine.
3. The process of inducing labour for the childbirth process.
4. (obsolete) An introduction.
   • This is but an induction: I'lldraw / The curtains of the tragedy hereafter.1619, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry