incision

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of incising.
2. n. Medicine A cut into a body tissue or organ, especially one made during surgery.
3. n. Medicine The scar resulting from such a cut.
4. n. A notch, as in the edge of a leaf.
5. n. The condition or quality of being incisive; incisiveness.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of incising or cutting into a substance; specifically, the act of cutting into flesh, as for the purpose of bloodletting.
2. n. A division or passage made by cutting; a cut or cutting; a gash.
3. n. Figuratively, trenchancy; incisiveness.
4. n. In botany and entomology, a slit or deep notch resembling a cut.
5. n. In Doric arch., same as hypotrachelium. Sometimes, especially in provincial examples, the incision is repeated to emphasize the separation of the shaft and capital. See cut under hypotrachelium.
6. n. A cutting away; removal, as by an acid or a drug.

Wiktionary

1. n. A cut, especially one made by a scalpel or similar medical tool in the context of surgical operation.
2. n. The act of incising, or cutting into a substance.
3. n. obsolete Separation or solution of viscid matter by medicines.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Med.) The act of incising, or cutting into a substance the cutting action made during surgery to gain access to the body parts under the skin.
2. n. (Med.) That which is produced by incising; the separation of the parts of any substance made by a cutting or pointed instrument; a cut; a gash the cut in the skin made during surgery to gain access to the interior of the body.
3. n. obsolete Separation or solution of viscid matter by medicines.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the cutting of or into body tissues or organs (especially by a surgeon as part of an operation)
2. n. a depression scratched or carved into a surface