Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The lower jaw of a vertebrate animal.
- n. Either the upper or lower part of the beak in birds.
- n. Any of various mouth organs of invertebrates used for seizing and biting food, especially either of a pair of such organs in insects and other arthropods.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In zoöl, and anatomy, a jaw-bone; a jaw, or the jaw-bone and associate parts; especially, the under jaw. In man and other mammals, the under jaw, or inferior maxillary, as distinguished from the upper jaw, maxilla, or superior maxillary.
- Demandable.
- n. In polyzoans, an operculum.
Wiktionary
- n. The lower jaw, especially the lower jawbone.
- n. One of a pair of mouthparts of an arthropod designed for holding food.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The bone, or principal bone, of the lower jaw; the inferior maxilla; -- also applied to either the upper or the lower jaw in the beak of birds.
- n. The anterior pair of mouth organs of insects, crustaceaus, and related animals, whether adapted for biting or not. See
Illust. of Diptera.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the jaw in vertebrates that is hinged to open the mouth
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin mandibula, from Latin mandere, to chew.
Examples
“Results presented call into question differences in mandible shape recently used to distinguish Gigantopithecus giganteus from Gigantopithecus blacki and to justify resurrecting a different generic designation, "Indopithecus," for the former.”
“Distracters, the media, and the debunkers in this current onslaught against the discovery are completely ignoring the evidence of the possibly nine Homo floresiensis individuals discovered at the site, says Brown. âThere are no modern humans with the postcranial dimensions of Homo floresiensis and the second mandible is well outside the range of human variation, â Brown told Cryptomundo.”
“Finally, a complete mandible is known for the Hungarian azhdarchid Bakonydraco.”
“Nor is it more difficult to discern that, in the appendages of the tail, the middle division appears again and the outer vanishes; while, on the other hand, in the foremost jaw, the so-called mandible, the inner division only is left; and, in the same way, the parts of the feelers and of the eye-stalks can be identified with those of the legs and jaws.”
“The lower mandible, which is powerful, and is indented at its point to receive the hook, has a very sharp edge, which, with that of the upper mandible, constitutes a pair of formidable shears.”
“The upper mandible, which is strongly convex, exhibits upon its median line a slight ridge, which is quite wide at its origin, and then continues to decrease and becomes sensibly depressed as far as to the center of its length, and afterward rises on approaching the anterior extremity, where it terminates in a powerful hook, which seems to form”
“Correlated with this peculiarity the maxilla usually has the tomia sinuated, and is generally concave, and smaller and narrower than the mandible, which is also concave to receive the palatal knob.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
“On the body of the mandible is a median ridge, indicating the position of the symphysis; this ridge divides below to enclose the mental protuberance, the lateral angles of which constitute the mental tubercles.”
“The manner in which they eat the roots of the plaintain in the grass walk is very curious; with their upper mandible, which is much larger than the lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off upward, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched.”
Our Friend John Burroughs
“The upper mandible, which is convex in other birds, is flattened in the flamingo, whilst the lower, instead of being flat, is convex.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mandible’.
-
Skeleton
Bones! (and other stuff)
cranium, vertebrae, cervical vertebrae, thoriac vertebrae, lumbar vertebrae, clavicle, rib cage, sternum, pelvis, coccyx, scapula, radius and 19 more...
chained_bear Every time I hear it, I think of ants and other insects, though. Dec 5, 2007
reesetee Didn't Barry Manilow write a song about this? ;-> Aug 10, 2007
haguremetaru Like Mandalay Bay. Dec 9, 2006