Definition of "cell"

So, taking them apart into his cell, / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

For three days he and his attendants had wandered in the forest without seeing a human form: but on the evening of the third they came to a cell, in which they found a venerable hermit in the agonies of death.

1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV

A nunʼs bedroom is properly called a cell and is small, bare, and plain, without comfort.

2002, Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife, Phoenix (2012), page 315

Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom […].

1858, Asa Gray, Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany, fifth edition, p. 282

How soft the music of those village bells / […] With easy force it opens all the cells / Where mem'ry slept.

1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […]

[W]e shall feel still more contempt for the order of men, who cultivated their faculties, only to enable them to consolidate their power, by leading the ignorant astray; making the learning they concentrated in their cells, a more polished instrument of oppression.

1794, Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution

From cell to cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man's appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre.

1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell [translating caveau] wherein thou art placed […].

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell […].

1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, (please specify the stanza number)

An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.

1999 February 15, Paul Brown, Dave King, The Guardian

In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.

2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 3

Basically, I'm looking for a fast (the fastest?) way of updating grids, where each cell has to look at an arbitrary number of its neighbors.

1988 January 26, David Hiebeler, “Fast way to update grids”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet)

It is used for land-use change simulations, where the content of the cells surrounding a central cell defines how this cell is going to evolve (for example, a cell that is "agriculture" but has 3 urban neighbors will likely become urban, while if it is surrounded by forest or other agriculture cells, it will remain agriculture.)

2010 March 10, Jean H., “What is CA for?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet)

I've seen this space colloqually referred to as MAP (presumably since it maps a 3x3 neighborhood into a future cell state)

2022 February 11, Mateon1, “Game of Life with real 8 neighbors”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet)

Salarian intelligence field agents are grouped into an organization called the Special Tasks Group. STG operators work in independent cells, performing dangerous missions such as counter-terrorism, infiltration, reconnaissance, assassination, and sabotage.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Salarians: Special Tasks Group Codex entry

Myself a recluse from the world, And celled under ground, Lest that the gould, the precious stones, And pleasures, here be found

1586, William Warner, Albion's England