process

process
    n 1: a particular course of action intended to achieve a result;
         "the procedure of obtaining a driver's license"; "it was a
         process of trial and error" [syn: {procedure}, {process}]
    2: (psychology) the performance of some composite cognitive
       activity; an operation that affects mental contents; "the
       process of thinking"; "the cognitive operation of
       remembering" [syn: {process}, {cognitive process}, {mental
       process}, {operation}, {cognitive operation}]
    3: a writ issued by authority of law; usually compels the
       defendant's attendance in a civil suit; failure to appear
       results in a default judgment against the defendant [syn:
       {summons}, {process}]
    4: a mental process that you are not directly aware of; "the
       process of denial" [syn: {process}, {unconscious process}]
    5: a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an
       organism either animal or plant; "a bony process" [syn:
       {process}, {outgrowth}, {appendage}]
    6: a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes
       through a series of states; "events now in process"; "the
       process of calcification begins later for boys than for
       girls" [syn: {process}, {physical process}]
    v 1: subject to a process or treatment, with the aim of readying
         for some purpose, improving, or remedying a condition;
         "process cheese"; "process hair"; "treat the water so it
         can be drunk"; "treat the lawn with chemicals" ; "treat an
         oil spill" [syn: {process}, {treat}]
    2: deal with in a routine way; "I'll handle that one"; "process
       a loan"; "process the applicants"
    3: perform mathematical and logical operations on (data)
       according to programmed instructions in order to obtain the
       required information; "The results of the elections were
       still being processed when he gave his acceptance speech"
    4: institute legal proceedings against; file a suit against; "He
       was warned that the district attorney would process him";
       "She actioned the company for discrimination" [syn: {action},
       {sue}, {litigate}, {process}]
    5: march in a procession; "They processed into the dining room"
       [syn: {march}, {process}]
    6: shape, form, or improve a material; "work stone into tools";
       "process iron"; "work the metal" [syn: {work}, {work on},
       {process}]
    7: deliver a warrant or summons to someone; "He was processed by
       the sheriff" [syn: {serve}, {process}, {swear out}]
    

Service \Serv"ice\, n. [OE. servise, OF. servise, service, F.
   service, from L. servitium. See {Serve}.]
   1. The act of serving; the occupation of a servant; the
      performance of labor for the benefit of another, or at
      another's command; attendance of an inferior, hired
      helper, slave, etc., on a superior, employer, master, or
      the like; also, spiritual obedience and love. "O God . . .
      whose service is perfect freedom." --Bk. of Com. Prayer.
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            Madam, I entreat true peace of you,
            Which I will purchase with my duteous service.
                                                  --Shak.
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            God requires no man's service upon hard and
            unreasonable terms.                   --Tillotson.
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   2. The deed of one who serves; labor performed for another;
      duty done or required; office.
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            I have served him from the hour of my nativity, . .
            . and have nothing at his hands for my service but
            blows.                                --Shak.
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            This poem was the last piece of service I did for my
            master, King Charles.                 --Dryden.
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            To go on the forlorn hope is a service of peril; who
            will understake it if it be not also a service of
            honor?                                --Macaulay.
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   3. Office of devotion; official religious duty performed;
      religious rites appropriate to any event or ceremonial;
      as, a burial service.
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            The outward service of ancient religion, the rites,
            ceremonies, and ceremonial vestments of the old law.
                                                  --Coleridge.
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   4. Hence, a musical composition for use in churches.
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   5. Duty performed in, or appropriate to, any office or
      charge; official function; hence, specifically, military
      or naval duty; performance of the duties of a soldier.
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            When he cometh to experience of service abroad . . .
            ne maketh a worthy soldier.           --Spenser.
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   6. Useful office; advantage conferred; that which promotes
      interest or happiness; benefit; avail.
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            The stork's plea, when taken in a net, was the
            service she did in picking up venomous creatures.
                                                  --L'Estrange.
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   7. Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed. "Pray,
      do my service to his majesty." --Shak.
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   8. The act and manner of bringing food to the persons who eat
      it; order of dishes at table; also, a set or number of
      vessels ordinarily used at table; as, the service was
      tardy and awkward; a service of plate or glass.
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            There was no extraordinary service seen on the
            board.                                --Hakewill.
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   9. (Law) The act of bringing to notice, either actually or
      constructively, in such manner as is prescribed by law;
      as, the service of a subp[oe]na or an attachment.
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   10. (Naut.) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., as
       spun yarn, small lines, etc.
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   11. (Tennis) The act of serving the ball.
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   12. Act of serving or covering. See {Serve}, v. t., 13.
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   {Service book}, a prayer book or missal.

   {Service line} (Tennis), a line parallel to the net, and at a
      distance of 21 feet from it.

   {Service of a writ}, {process}, etc. (Law), personal delivery
      or communication of the writ or process, etc., to the
      party to be affected by it, so as to subject him to its
      operation; the reading of it to the person to whom notice
      is intended to be given, or the leaving of an attested
      copy with the person or his attorney, or at his usual
      place of abode.

   {Service of an attachment} (Law), the seizing of the person
      or goods according to the direction.

   {Service of an execution} (Law), the levying of it upon the
      goods, estate, or person of the defendant.

   {Service pipe}, a pipe connecting mains with a dwelling, as
      in gas pipes, and the like. --Tomlinson.

   {To accept service}. (Law) See under {Accept}.

   {To see service} (Mil.), to do duty in the presence of the
      enemy, or in actual war.
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Process \Proc"ess\, n. [F. proc[`e]s, L. processus. See
   {Proceed}.]
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   1. The act of proceeding; continued forward movement;
      procedure; progress; advance. "Long process of time."
      --Milton.
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            The thoughts of men are widened with the process of
            the suns.                             --Tennyson.
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   2. A series of actions, motions, or occurrences; progressive
      act or transaction; continuous operation; normal or actual
      course or procedure; regular proceeding; as, the process
      of vegetation or decomposition; a chemical process;
      processes of nature.
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            Tell her the process of Antonio's end. --Shak.
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   3. A statement of events; a narrative. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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   4. (Anat. & Zool.) Any marked prominence or projecting part,
      especially of a bone; anapophysis.
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   5. (Law) The whole course of proceedings in a cause real or
      personal, civil or criminal, from the beginning to the end
      of the suit; strictly, the means used for bringing the
      defendant into court to answer to the action; -- a generic
      term for writs of the class called judicial.
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   {Deacon's process} [from H. Deacon, who introduced it]
      (Chem.), a method of obtaining chlorine gas by passing
      hydrochloric acid gas over heated slag which has been
      previously saturated with a solution of some metallic
      salt, as sulphate of copper.

   {Final process} (Practice), a writ of execution in an action
      at law. --Burrill.

   {In process}, in the condition of advance, accomplishment,
      transaction, or the like; begun, and not completed.

   {Jury process} (Law), the process by which a jury is summoned
      in a cause, and by which their attendance is enforced.
      --Burrill.

   {Leblanc's process} (Chem.), the process of manufacturing
      soda by treating salt with sulphuric acid, reducing the
      sodium sulphate so formed to sodium sulphide by roasting
      with charcoal, and converting the sodium sulphide to
      sodium carbonate by roasting with lime.

   {Mesne process}. See under {Mesne}.

   {Process milling}, the process of high milling for grinding
      flour. See under {Milling}.

   {Reversible process} (Thermodynamics), any process consisting
      of a cycle of operations such that the different
      operations of the cycle can be performed in reverse order
      with a reversal of their effects.
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process

   1. <operating system, software> The sequence of states of an
   executing {program}.  A process consists of the program {code}
   (which may be shared with other processes which are executing
   the same program), private data, and the state of the
   {processor}, particularly the values in its {registers}.  It
   may have other associated resources such as a {process
   identifier}, open files, {CPU time} limits, {shared memory},
   {child processes}, and {signal handlers}.

   One process may, on some {platforms}, consist of many
   {threads}.  A {multitasking} {operating system} can run
   multiple processes {concurrently} or in {parallel}, and allows
   a process to spawn "child" processes.

   (2001-06-16)

   2. <business> The sequence of activities, people, and systems
   involved in carrying out some business or achieving some
   desired result.  E.g. software development process, project
   management process, configuration management process.

   (2001-06-16)
    

PROCESS, rights. The means or method of accomplishing a thing. 
     2. It has been said that the word manufacture, (q.v.) in the patent 
laws, may, perhaps, extend to a new process, to be carried on by known 
implements, or elements, acting upon known substances, and ultimately 
producing some other known substance, but producing it in a cheaper or more 
expeditious manner, or of a better and more useful kind. 2 B. & Ald. 349. 
See Perpigna, Manuel des Inventeurs, &c., c. 1; s. 5, Sec. 1, p. 22, 4th 
ed.; Manufacture; Method. 
    

PROCESS, practice. So denominated because it proceeds or issues forth in 
order to bring the defendant into court, to answer the charge preferred 
against him, and signifies the writ or judicial means by which he is brought 
to answer. 1 Paine, R. 368 Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. 
     2. In the English law, process in civil causes is called original 
process, when it is founded upon the original writ; and also to distinguish 
it from mesne or intermediate process, which issues pending the suit, upon 
some collateral interlocutory matter, as, to summon juries, witnesses,, and 
the like; mesne process is also sometimes put in contradistinction to final 
process, or process of execution; and then it signifies all process which 
intervenes between the beginning and end of a suit. 3 Bl. Com. 279. 
     3. In criminal cases that proceeding which is called a warrant, before 
the finding of the bill, is termed process when issued after the indictment 
has been found by the jury. Vide 4 Bl. Com. 319; Dalt. J. c. 193; Com. Dig. 
Process, A 1; Burn's Dig. Process; Williams, J, Process; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 
338; 17 Vin. Ab. 585. 
     4. The word process in the 12th section of the 5th article of the 
constitution of Pennsylvania, which provides that "the style of all process 
shall be The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," was intended to refer to such 
writs only as should become necessary to be issued in the course of the 
exercise of that judicial power which is established and provided for in the 
article of the constitution, and forms exclusively the subject matter of it. 
3 Penna. R. 99. 
    

PROCESS, MESNE, practice. By this term is generally understood any writ 
issued in the course of a suit between the original process and execution. 
     2. By this term is also meant the writ or proceedings in an action to 
summon or bring the defendant into court, or compel him to appear or put in 
bail, and then to hear and answer the plaintiffs claim. 3 Chit. Pr. 140. 
    

173 Moby Thesaurus words for "process":
      Afro, MO, act, activity, algorithm, alter, analog process, answer,
      approach, arrange, attack, barber, behavior pattern, bench warrant,
      blow up, blueprint, bob, capias, carve, caveat, change, chisel,
      clear for action, clear the decks, coif, coiffure, cold wave, conk,
      convert, course, course of action, cruise, cultivate, cure,
      deal with, death warrant, deploy, develop, development,
      digital process, dispose of, dress, enlarge, excrescence,
      excrescency, extract, fare, fashion, feeling, fieri facias, fix,
      fix up, form, function, get ready, go, grow, guise,
      habere facias possessionem, haircut, hairdo, hairstyle, handle,
      harvest, headdress, hie, home permanent, hunting, injunction,
      input oscillation, interdict, journey, line, line of action, lines,
      machine, make arrangements, make preparations, make ready, manage,
      mandamus, mandate, mandatory injunction, manipulate, manner,
      manner of working, marshal, means, measure, method, methodology,
      mill, mine, mittimus, mobilize, mode, mode of operation,
      mode of procedure, modify, modus, modus operandi, motion, natural,
      nisi prius, notice, notification, offset, operation, order,
      organize, oscillatory behavior, overcorrection of error, overshoot,
      pass, permanent, permanent wave, plan, pompadour, practice,
      prearrange, precept, prep, prepare, pretreat, print, procedure,
      proceed, proceeding, procure materials, prohibitory injunction,
      provide, pump, push on, put in shape, raise, ready, ready up, rear,
      refine, repair, routine, search warrant, self-excitation,
      settle preliminaries, shingle, smelt, step, stock, stock up, store,
      style, system, tack, take care of, tan, technique, the drill,
      the how, the way of, tone, transform, travel, treat, trim, try out,
      utilize, warrant, warrant of arrest, warrant of attorney, wave,
      way, wise, writ