cavin

plural cavins

1. governmentA hollow route, adapted to cover troops and facilitate their approach to a place.

   These posts are sometimes covered by a rideau, or rising ground, or else by a cavin, or deep valley, which saves the trouble of fortifying them with parapets, fascines, gabions, barrels, or bags of earth.

   1760, A New Military Dictionary: or, the Field of war.

   2 more examples

   Having a sufficient Knowledge of the several Parts of the Fortification, by means of Spies, Deserters, Prisoners, and from printed or drawn Plans, The Nature of the Ground about the Place must be well examined and observed, whether there are any hollow Ways, or Cavins, by means of which the Trenches may be opened nearer than usual;

   1747, John Muller, The Attack and Defence of Fortify'd Places, page 29

   A cavin near a place besieged is of great advantage to the besiegers; as by help hereof they can open trenches, make places of arms, keep guards of horse, and the like, without being exposed to the enemy's shot.

   1788, William Henry Hall, The New Royal Encyclopaedia

1. biochemistryA type of protein that is involved in forming the caveola of many vertebrate cells.

   The cavin family consists of four proteins now termed cavins 1e4 and encoded by the PTRF, SDPR, SRBC, and MURC genes, respectively. Interestingly, none of the early studies about each cavin charcterized it as a caveolar protein.

   2015, Kwang W. Jeon, International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology, page 238

   2 more examples

   The observation that lipid rafts and caveolae were highly enriched in PS in the cytoplasmic leaflet of the membrane (Pike et al. 2002) nicely dovetails with recent findings that all cavin proteins that are required for caveola biogenesis bind PS.

   2011, Ivan R. Nabi, Cellular Domains, page 46

   The cavin family of proteins is composed of four main types—cavin 1 (polymerase 1 and transcript release factor, PTRF), cavin 2 (serum deprivation response protein, SDPR), cavin 3 (protein kinase-c delta binding protein, PRKCDBP), and cavin 4 (muscle restricted coiled protein, MURC).

   2020, The Future of Pharmaceutical Product Development and Research, page 233

plural Cavins

1. A surname.