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A mouth or aperture, as of a tube, pipe, etc.; an opening; as, the orifice of an artery or vein; the orifice of a wound. Shak. Etna was bored through the top with a monstrous orifice. Addison.

rings into a concave form with a smart crack; and by breathing or blowing gently into the orifice, the bottom, with a like noise, springs into its former convex form.

A forcible stream of air from an orifice, as from a bellows, the mouth, etc. Hence: The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace; as, to melt so many tons of iron at a blast.

The large stopper of the orifice in the bilge of a cask.

The anterior or cardiac orifice of the stomach, where the esophagus enters it.

A stricture or narrowing, as of a canal, cavity, or orifice.

A muscle which contracts or closes an orifice, or which compresses an organ; a sphincter.

Characterized by a current which flows outward; as, an excurrent orifice or tube.

ir or gas out of a place, as out of a room in ventilating it. -- Exhaust nozzle, Exhaust orifice (Steam Engine), the blast orifice or nozzle. -- Exhaust pipe (Steam Engine), the pipe that conveys exhaust steam from the cylinder to the atmosphere or to the condenser. Exhaust port (Steam Engine), the opening, in the cy…

A drawplate with a narrow, rectangular orifice, for drawing flat strips, as watch springs, etc.

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.

jet piece of a gas fixture where the gas is burned as it escapes from one or more minute orifices.

f the source, or the height of the surface, as of water, above a given place, as above an orifice at which it issues, and the pressure resulting from the height or from motion; sometimes also, the quantity in reserve; as, a mill or reservoir has a good head of water, or ten feet head; also, that part of a gulf or bay m…

Having the raphe terminating about half way between the chalaza and the orifice; amphitropous; -- said of an ovule. Gray.

The noise made by steam escaping through a narrow orifice, or by water falling on a hot stove.

An instrument for determining and recording the quantity of water discharged from a pipe, orifice, etc., in a given time.

A kind of water clock, used anciently for measuring time, the water tricking from an orifice at the end of a graduated tube.

A fold of muscous membrane often found at the orifice of the vagina; the vaginal membrane.

Characterized by a current which flows inward; as, the incurrent orifice of lamellibranch Mollusca.

pper part of the siphon, and ceasing when, by running through it, it has fallen below the orifice of the upper part of the siphon in the reservoir.