Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

            When King Demetrius saw that . . . no resistance was
            made against him, he sent away all his forces. --1.
                                                  Macc. xi. 38.

   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.

   3. A means or method of resisting; that which resists.

            Unfold to us some warlike resistance. --Shak.

   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.

   {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.