Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The serous membrane that lines the walls of the abdominal cavity and folds inward to enclose the viscera.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The membrane lining the abdominal cavity and investing its viscera. It is a strong, uncolored, transparent, serous membrane, with a smooth, moist, shining surface, attached to the subjacent structures by the subperitoneal areolar tissue, and forming a closed sac, except in the female, where it is continuous with the mucous membrane of the Fallopian tubes, or oviducts. From the walls of the abdominal and pelvic cavities it is reflected at various places over the viscera, which it serves to invest and at the same time hold in position by its folds or duplicatures. These folds or duplicatures are of various kinds. Some of them, constituting the mesenteries (see
mesentery ), connect certain parts of the intestinal canal with the posterior abdominal walls; others form the socalled ligaments of the liver, spleen, stomach, and kidneys, the broad ligaments of the uterus, and the suspensory ligament of the bladder; still others form the omenta, folds attached to the greater and lesser curvatures of the stomach. That part which lines the abdominal and pelvic walls is called the parietal or external peritoneum; that which more or less completely invests the viscera, the visceral or internal. The cavity of the peritoneum is divided into two unequal parts by the constriction at Winslow's foramen; of these, the upper posterior one, lying back of and below the stomach and liver, is called the lesser cavity; the greater cavity lies in front and below. In vertebrates below mammals, in which there is no diaphragm, the peritoneum and the pleura (which is the corresponding thoracic serous membrane) are thrown into one, lining the whole pleuroperitoneal cavity and investing its contained viscera. The name peritoneum is extended to various similar or analogous, though not necessarily homologous, membranes or tunics which line the body-cavity of many different iuvertebrates. - n. In brachiopods, an investment of the alimentary canal, by which the latter is suspended in the perivisceral cavity as by a mesentery. Special folds form the gastroparietal and ileoparietal bands, respectively connecting the stomach and intestines with the parietes.
- n. In entomology, the outer coat of the digestive tube of an insect.
Wiktionary
- n. In mammals, the serous membrane lining the cavity of the abdomen and that is folded over the viscera.
- n. In animals, the membrane lining the coelom cavity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The smooth serous membrane which lines the cavity of the abdomen, or the whole body cavity when there is no diaphragm, and, turning back, surrounds the viscera, forming a closed, or nearly closed, sac.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a transparent membrane that lines the abdominal cavity in mammals and covers most of the viscera
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Late Latin peritonaeum, from Greek peritonaion, from peritonaios, stretched across, from peritonos, stretched around : peri-, peri- + teinein, to stretch; see ten- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“The peritoneum is the mesothelial tissue that covers most of the organs in the abdominal cavity.”
“The under surface is covered by peritoneum, which is reflected on to it from the surface of the liver.”
“The spleen is almost entirely surrounded by peritoneum, which is firmly adherent to its capsule.”
“The vesical or anterior surface (facies vesicalis) is flattened and covered by peritoneum, which is reflected on to the bladder to form the vesicouterine excavation.”
“Posteriorly, the supravaginal cervix is covered by peritoneum, which is prolonged below on to the posterior vaginal wall, when it is reflected on to the rectum, forming the rectouterine excavation.”
“The intestinal or posterior surface (facies intestinalis) is convex transversely and is covered by peritoneum, which is continued down on to the cervix and vagina.”
“The anterior ligament consists of the vesicouterine fold of peritoneum, which is reflected on to the bladder from the front of the uterus, at the junction of the cervix and body.”
“The posterior ligament consists of the rectovaginal fold of peritoneum, which is reflected from the back of the posterior fornix of the vagina on to the front of the rectum.”
“The peritoneum is the lining membrane of the peritoneal cavity.”
“At first through the skin and fascia only, this incision must be continued through the muscles of the abdominal wall, one by one, till the transversalis fascia is exposed, which must then be scraped through very cautiously, so as not to injure the peritoneum, which is to be detached from the fascia covering the psoas and iliacus muscles, and must be held inwards and out of the way by bent copper spatulæ.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peritoneum’.
duckbill "Here is Virgil ... who probably preferred a lad's peritonium."
- Nabokov Mar 1, 2011