n. | 1. | A leading or drawing off of water from a stream or source. |
| 2. | The act of receiving anything from a source; the act of procuring an effect from a cause, means, or condition, as profits from capital, conclusions or opinions from evidence. |
| 3. | The act of tracing origin or descent, as in grammar or genealogy; as, the derivation of a word from an Aryan root. |
| 4. | The state or method of being derived; the relation of origin when established or asserted. |
| 5. | That from which a thing is derived. |
| 6. | That which is derived; a derivative; a deduction. |
| 7. | (Math.) The operation of deducing one function from another according to some fixed law, called the law of derivation, as the operation of differentiation or of integration. |
| 8. | (Med.) A drawing of humors or fluids from one part of the body to another, to relieve or lessen a morbid process. |
| 9. | The formation of a word from its more original or radical elements; also, a statement of the origin and history of a word. |