Main Entry: pe·tri dish

Pronunciation: \ˈpē-trē-\

Function: noun

: a small shallow dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for cultures in bacteriology

Pe·tri \ˈpā-trē\ , Julius Richard (1852–1921), German bacteriologist. Petri was an assistant to the eminent bacteriologist Robert Koch. In 1887 Petri introduced a vessel for growing bacteria that consists of two round rimmed plates, one serving as a cover for the other.