Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Botany The spontaneous opening at maturity of a plant structure, such as a fruit, anther, or sporangium, to release its contents.
  • noun Medicine A rupture or splitting open, as of a surgical wound, or of an organ or structure to discharge its contents.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A gaping.
  • noun 2. In botany, the opening of a pericarp for the discharge of the seeds, or of an anther to set free the pollen.
  • noun In pathol., a bursting open.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of gaping.
  • noun (Biol.) A gaping or bursting open along a definite line of attachment or suture, without tearing, as in the opening of pods, or the bursting of capsules at maturity so as to emit seeds, etc.; also, the bursting open of follicles, as in the ovaries of animals, for the expulsion of their contents.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany Opening of an organ by its own means (such as an anther or a seed pod) to release its contents.
  • noun medicine A rupture, as with a surgical wound opening up, often with a flow of serous fluid.
  • noun rare Opening, gaping, in a general sense.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (biology) release of material by splitting open of an organ or tissue; the natural bursting open at maturity of a fruit or other reproductive body to release seeds or spores or the bursting open of a surgically closed wound

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Modern Latin dehiscentia (in Linnaeus), from Latin dehiscentem, present participle of dehiscere.

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Examples

  • You will find nothing but blunder and embarrassment result from any endeavour to enter into further particulars, such as "the relation of the dissepiment with respect to the valves of the capsule," etc., etc., since "in the various species of Veronica almost every kind of dehiscence may be observed" (C. under V. perfoliata, 1936, an

    Proserpina, Volume 2 Studies Of Wayside Flowers John Ruskin 1859

  • It was the doctor's assistant who explained I had a skin condition called dehiscence, which means wounds tend to not stay closed.

    Women Among Us: Terry Galloway 2009

  • Maggie has a history of her abdominal surgical wound breaking wide-the-frack open -- technical term: dehiscence -- and taking months, infected, pain-filled, pus-dripping agonizing months to heal. * shudders* Throughout the last two weeks, much much more than dying, dehiscence and cancer have been Maggie's major fears.

    One Week After Emergency Abdominal Surgery Maggie Jochild Is Still In Intensive Care 2009

  • It was the doctor's assistant who explained I had a skin condition called dehiscence, which means wounds tend to not stay closed.

    Archive 2009-06-01 2009

  • Maggie has a history of her abdominal surgical wound breaking wide-the-frack open -- technical term: dehiscence -- and taking months, infected, pain-filled, pus-dripping agonizing months to heal. * shudders* Throughout the last two weeks, much much more than dying, dehiscence and cancer have been Maggie's major fears.

    Archive 2009-10-01 2009

  • The surgeon called it wound dehiscence and said it was common in people who keloided with scars.

    MY KNEES -- PART THREE, AFTER THE SURGERY Maggie Jochild 2007

  • I told her about my wound dehiscence issue, and she paled a little.

    MY KNEES -- PART THREE, AFTER THE SURGERY Maggie Jochild 2007

  • You can deal with trying to get him onto oral meds later, but your goal right now is to get his sugars under control so he doesn't get a wound dehiscence with a roaring post-op skin infection or peritonitis.

    Oil and Water (Sometimes): Guidelines and Real Life 1 Dinosaur 2009

  • Each time that Heidegger refers the question of being to the question of the proper-ty (propre), of propriate, of propriation (eigen, eignen, ereignen, Ereignis especially) this dehiscence bursts forth anew.

    Archive 2009-04-01 enowning 2009

  • Each time that Heidegger refers the question of being to the question of the proper-ty (propre), of propriate, of propriation (eigen, eignen, ereignen, Ereignis especially) this dehiscence bursts forth anew.

    enowning enowning 2009

Comments

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  • During a rainy winter, I witness the dehiscence of oak root fungus beneath my trees. I fear that it portends a doom of some sort.

    February 3, 2009