Search the Dictionary

The act of dividing or opening; the state of being fissured.

A narrow opening, made by the parting of any substance; a cleft; as, the fissure of a rock. Cerebral fissures (Anat.), the furrows or clefts by which the surface of the cerebrum is divided; esp., the furrows first formed by the infolding of the whole wall of the cerebrum. -- Fissure needle (Surg.), a spiral needle for…

A genus of marine gastropod mollusks, having a conical or limpetlike shell, with an opening at the apex; -- called also keyhole limpet.

A permanent abnormal opening into the soft parts with a constant discharge; a deep, narrow, chronic abscess; an abnormal opening between an internal cavity and another cavity or the surface; as, a salivary fistula; an anal fistula; a recto-vaginal fistula. Incomplete fistula (Med.), a fistula open at one end only.…

side or end and is easily moved; as, the flap of a garment. A cartilaginous flap upon the opening of the larynx. Sir T. Browne.

Opening or speading outwards.

The process or operation of making flat, as a cylinder of glass by opening it out.

A sharp instrument used for opening veins, lancing gums, etc.; a kind of lancet. Fleam tooth, a tooth of a saw shaped like an isosceles triangle; a peg tooth. Knight.

owing the thickness of the walls and partitions, arrangement of passages, apartments, and openings at the level of any floor of a house.

Consisting of, or pertaining to, leaves; as, foliar appendages. Foliar gap (Bot.), an opening in the fibrovascular system of a stem at the point of origin of a leaf. -- Foliar trace (Bot.), a particular fibrovascular bundle passing down into the stem from a leaf.

The enrichment of an opening by means of foils, arranged in trefoils, quatrefoils, etc.; also, one of the ornaments. See Tracery.

or check valve at the lower end of a pipe; esp., such a valve in a steam-engine condenser opening to the air pump.

A small opening, perforation, or orifice; a fenestra. Foramen of Monro (Anat.), the opening from each lateral into the third ventricle of the brain. -- Foramen of Winslow (Anat.), the opening connecting the sac of the omentum with the general cavity of the peritoneum.

Having small opening, or foramina.

Having small openings, or foramina.

The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.

Opening into two or more parts or shoots; forked; furcated. "Forky tongues." Pope.

ced by the friction or rustling of the breath, intonated or unintonated, through a narrow opening between two of the mouth organs; uttered through a close approach, but not with a complete closure, of the organs of articulation, and hence capable of being continued or prolonged; -- said of certain consonantal sounds, a…

A narrow arm of the sea; an estuary; the opening of a river into the sea; as, the Frith of Forth.

A mode of opening the game, in which a pawn is sacrificed to gain an attacking position.