Definition of: process

(pros′es, esp. Brit. prō′ses) noun
1. A course or method of operations in the production of something: a metallurgical process.
2. A forward movement; progressive or continuous proceeding; passage; advance; course.
3. Any judicial writ or order issued at the commencement or during the progress of an action, as summons, citation, subpoena, or execution; especially, a writ issued to bring a defendant into court; also, the whole course of proceedings in a cause, civil or criminal, from beginning to end.
4. Biol. An accessory outgrowth or prominence of an organism.
5. Physiol. The fibrous prolongation from the body of the nerve cell (neuron) that carries the outgoing nervous impulse.
6. In patent law, a means of effecting a result otherwise than by mechanism, as by chemical action.
7. Phot. Any of the modern methods of producing relief printing surfaces by photography and mechanical or chemical means.
—adjective
1. Produced by a special method: process butter; process cheese.
2. Pertaining to, for, or made by, a mechanical or chemical photographic process: a process illustration.
—v.t.
1. To treat or prepare by a special method.
2. Law a To issue or serve a process on. b To proceed against. [<L processus progress, orig. pp. of procedere. See PROCEED.]