Definitions

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

  • noun A mass, such as an air bubble, a detached blood clot, or a foreign body, that travels through the bloodstream and lodges so as to obstruct or occlude a blood vessel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Something inserted into or acting within something else; that which thrusts or drives, as a piston or wedge.
  • noun The clot of fibrin obstructing a blood-vessel, causing embolism: as, capillary emboli.
  • noun The nucleus emboliformis of the cerebellum.
  • noun Also embolon, embolum.
  • noun The terminal portion of the digital joint of the palpus of a male spider, containing an orifice near the tip through which the seminal fluid is collected and later ejected.

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

  • noun Something inserted, as a wedge; the piston or sucker of a pump or syringe.
  • noun (Med.) A plug of some substance lodged in a blood vessel, being brought thither by the blood current. It consists most frequently of a clot of fibrin, a detached shred of a morbid growth, a globule of fat, or a microscopic organism.

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

  • noun pathology An obstruction causing an embolism: a blood clot, air bubble or other matter carried by the blood stream and causing a blockage or occlusion of a blood vessel.
  • noun zoology The structure on the end of the palp of male arachnids which contains the opening to the ejaculatory duct.

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

  • noun an abnormal particle (e.g. an air bubble or part of a clot) circulating in the blood

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, piston of a pump, from Greek embolos, stopper, plug, from emballein, to insert; see emblem.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin embolus ("piston"), from Ancient Greek ἔμβολος (embolos, "peg, stopper").

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Examples

  • Patients with clotting disorders may develop a pulmonary embolus, that is, they throw a clot that lodges in the blood vessels of the lung.

    THE LUPUS HANDBOOK FOR WOMEN ROBIN DIBNER 1994

  • Patients with clotting disorders may develop a pulmonary embolus, that is, they throw a clot that lodges in the blood vessels of the lung.

    THE LUPUS HANDBOOK FOR WOMEN ROBIN DIBNER 1994

  • Patients with clotting disorders may develop a pulmonary embolus, that is, they throw a clot that lodges in the blood vessels of the lung.

    THE LUPUS HANDBOOK FOR WOMEN ROBIN DIBNER 1994

  • This practice can produce an air embolus air bubble in your blood, a potentially fatal condition.

    Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn Penny Simkin 2010

  • This practice can produce an air embolus air bubble in your blood, a potentially fatal condition.

    Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn Penny Simkin 2010

  • The tall man who is a bleeder; my son with thyroid disease; my neighbor with breast cancer; or me with my pulmonary embolus: we did not choose these things, cannot be held responsible, and should not pay more.

    Deane Waldman: Aaahh, Iiiiinnput! 2009

  • SCHEINBERG: Well, I think there were several predisposing factors that led you to having a pulmonary embolus.

    CNN Transcript Jan 7, 2008 2008

  • This moving clot is often called an embolus or embolism.

    Arterial Ischemic Stroke (AIS) 2006

  • Your mother may have thrown an embolus, and she is at risk of another major event.

    What was that about stroke symptoms? Susan Palwick 2007

  • "The two cases of pulmonary embolus, a serious and potentially fatal condition, must be counted as two cases ...," the report said.

    Ortho-McNeil Knew Ortho-Evra Patch Was Lethal 2006

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