pathological

5 definitions found

pathological - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Pathologic \Path`o*log"ic\, Pathological \Path`o*log"ic*al\, a.
     [Gr. ?: cf. F. pathologique.]
     1. Of or pertaining to pathology.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Med.) caused by or due to disease; abnormal; morbid; as,
        pathological tissue; a pathological condition.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.] -- Path`o*log"ic*al*ly, adv.
        [1913 Webster]

pathological - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  pathological
      adj 1: of or relating to the practice of pathology;
             "pathological laboratory" [syn: pathological,
             pathologic]
      2: caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition; "a
         pathological liar"; "a pathological urge to succeed"
      3: caused by or altered by or manifesting disease or pathology;
         "diseased tonsils"; "a morbid growth"; "pathologic tissue";
         "pathological bodily processes" [syn: diseased, morbid,
         pathologic, pathological]

pathological - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  pathological
  
     1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly
     atypical of normal expected input, especially one that exposes
     a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is using.  An
     algorithm that can be broken by pathological inputs may still
     be useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in
     practice.
  
     2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully
     engineered as a worst case.  The implication in both senses is
     that the data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone
     had to explicitly set out to break the algorithm in order to
     come up with such a crazy example.
  
     3. Also said of an unlikely collection of circumstances.  "If
     the network is down and comes up halfway through the execution
     of that command by root, the system may just crash."  "Yes,
     but that's a pathological case."  Often used to dismiss the
     case from discussion, with the implication that the
     consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so
     infrequently (if at all) that it doesn't seem worth going to
     the extra trouble to handle that case (see sense 1).
  
     [Jargon File]
  

pathological - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  pathological
   adj.
  
     1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly
     atypical of normal expected input, esp. one that exposes a weakness
  or
     bug in whatever algorithm one is using. An algorithm that can be
     broken by pathological inputs may still be useful if such inputs are
     very unlikely to occur in practice.
  
     2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully
     engineered as a worst case. The implication in both senses is that
  the
     data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone had to
     explicitly set out to break the algorithm in order to come up with
     such a crazy example.
  
     3. Also said of an unlikely collection of circumstances. "If the
     network is down and comes up halfway through the execution of that
     command by root, the system may just crash." "Yes, but that's a
     pathological case." Often used to dismiss the case from discussion,
     with the implication that the consequences are acceptable, since they
     will happen so infrequently (if at all) that it doesn't seem worth
     going to the extra trouble to handle that case (see sense 1).
  

pathological - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  19 Moby Thesaurus words for "pathological":
     bad, cankered, contaminated, diseased, gangrened, gangrenous,
     infected, morbid, mortified, peccant, poisoned, septic,
     sphacelated, tainted, ulcerated, ulcerous, unhealthy, unsound,
     unwholesome