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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 fissure or fracture on the side opposite to that which received the blow, or at some distance from it. Coxe.

A blowing out or excessive discharge of gas from a hole or fissure in a mine.

The face of coal parallel to the natural fissures.

A small fissure which admits water to the workings. Knight.

ening made by disruption, as a breach in the earth or a rock; a yawning abyss; a cleft; a fissure. That deep, romantic chasm which slanted down the green hill. Coleridge.

A small cleft, rent, or fissure, of greater length than breadth; a gap or crack; as, the chinks of wall. Through one cloudless chink, in a black, stormy sky. Shines out the dewy morning star. Macaulay.

Full of chinks or fissures; gaping; opening in narrow clefts. Dryden.

Dehiscing or opening by a transverse fissure extending around (a capsule or pod). See Illust. of Pyxidium.

Broken; fissured. Climb the Andeclifted side. Grainger.

A defect or malformation; esp., a fissure of the iris supposed to be a persistent embryonic cleft.

xtension is practiced on the lower part, as in cases of luxation or fracture. -- Counter fissure (Surg.) Same as Contrafissure. -- Counter indication. (Med.) Same as Contraindication. -- Counter irritant (Med.), an irritant to produce a blister, a pustular eruption, or other irritation in some part of the body, in o…

A partial separation of parts, with or without a perceptible opening; a chink or fissure; a narrow breach; a crevice; as, a crack in timber, or in a wall, or in glass.

Having crannies, chinks, or fissures; as, a crannied wall. Tennyson.

A small, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance. In a firm building, the cavities ought not to be filled with rubbish, but with brick or stone fitted to the crannies. Dryden. He peeped into every cranny. Arbuthnot.

A deep crevice or fissure, as in embankment; one of the clefts or fissure by which the mass of a glacier is divided.

arrow opening resulting from a split or crack or the separation of a junction; a cleft; a fissure; a rent. The mouse, Behind the moldering wainscot, shrieked, Or from the crevice peered about. Tennyson.

A shake or fissure between the annual rings of a tree, found oftenest near the roots.

l-like mass of mineral matter, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata.