petri dish

noun

pe·​tri dish ˈpē-trē- 

variants or less commonly Petri dish

plural petri dishes also Petri dishes

1

: a small shallow usually round dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for growing cells or microorganisms on a supportive medium (such as agar combined with nutrients)

… the protein extracted from human cancer cells could stimulate the growth of blood vessels in experiments with chicken embryos and tumor cells growing in petri dishes.

—Tina Hesman

Unfortunately, most laboratories can diagnose tuberculosis with certainty, or exclude it, only by placing sputum in a petri dish and waiting to see if the bacterium grows …

—The New York Times

… they found that the compound, sulforaphane, fights cancer in petri dishes.

—Doug Levy

2

: something (such as a place or situation) that fosters development

Of course being there for your team tends to contaminate your team. Our radio studio is currently a petri dish of disease.

—Matt Heath

"We view universities as a community's most promising petri dish for innovation," said Abby Taubner …

—Alex Wittenberg

MTV's The Real World, which sends seven attractive young strangers to spend six months turning their luxury housing into a Petri dish of sexual, racial, and interpersonal tension, has been running since 1992.

—Francine Prose

Examples of petri dish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Scientists there isolated a bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa and then tested the strain against 10 different antibiotics in a petri dish. —Jess Craig, Vox, 1 Oct. 2024

This black hole consists of a petri dish filled with nutrients but with a central hole beneath which flows a stream of fluid that sweeps away any bacteria that enters it. —The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 17 Sep. 2024

Who would’ve thought The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives would be a petri dish of controversy? —Sophie Hanson, StyleCaster, 6 Sep. 2024

In an experiment for Science Robotics, researchers used this process to direct fungal tendrils, grown in a petri dish, to activate robots’ motors via attached electrodes. —Saima S. Iqbal, Scientific American, 25 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Julius R. Petri †1921 German bacteriologist

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Petri dish

noun

Pe·​tri dish

ˌpē-trē-

: a small shallow dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for cultures of bacteria

Medical Definition

petri dish

noun

pe·​tri dish

variants also Petri dish

ˈpē-trē- 

: a small shallow usually round dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for growing cells on a supportive medium (such as agar combined with nutrients)