Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Segment \Seg"ment\, n. [L. segmentum, fr. secare to cut, cut
off: cf. F. segment. See {Saw} a cutting instrument.]
1. One of the parts into which any body naturally separates
or is divided; a part divided or cut off; a section; a
portion; as, a segment of an orange; a segment of a
compound or divided leaf.
2. (Geom.) A part cut off from a figure by a line or plane;
especially, that part of a circle contained between a
chord and an arc of that circle, or so much of the circle
as is cut off by the chord; as, the segment acb in the
Illustration.
3. (Mach.)
(a) A piece in the form of the sector of a circle, or part
of a ring; as, the segment of a sectional fly wheel or
flywheel rim.
(b) A segment gear.
4. (Biol.)
(a) One of the cells or division formed by segmentation,
as in egg cleavage or in fissiparous cell formation.
(b) One of the divisions, rings, or joints into which many
animal bodies are divided; a somite; a metamere; a
somatome.
{Segment gear}, a piece for receiving or communicating
reciprocating motion from or to a cogwheel, consisting of
a sector of a circular gear, or ring, having cogs on the
periphery, or face.
{Segment of a line}, the part of a line contained between two
points on it.
{Segment of a sphere}, the part of a sphere cut off by a
plane, or included between two parallel planes.
{Ventral segment}. (Acoustics) See {Loor}, n., 5.
Segment \Seg"ment\, v. i. (Biol.)
To divide or separate into parts in growth; to undergo
segmentation, or cleavage, as in the segmentation of the
ovum.
Source : WordNet®
segment
n 1: one of several parts or pieces that fit with others to
constitute a whole object; "a section of a fishing rod";
"metal sections were used below ground"; "finished the
final segment of the road" [syn: {section}]
2: one of the parts into which something naturally divides; "a
segment of an orange"
v 1: divide into segments; "segment an orange"; "segment a
compound word" [syn: {section}]
2: divide or split up; "The cells segmented"
Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing
segment
/seg'ment/ 1. A collection of {pages} in a
{memory management} system.
2. A separately relocatable section of an
executable program. {Unix} executables have a {text segment}
(executable machine instructions), a {data segment}
(initialised data) and a {bss segment} (uninitialised data).
3. {network segment}.
4. To experience a {segmentation fault}. Confusingly, the stress
is often put on the first syllable, like the noun "segment",
rather than the second like mainstream verb "segment". This
is because it is actually a noun shorthand that has been
verbed.
[{Jargon File}]
(1994-12-15)