Spine definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (54)

American Heritage Dictionary (7)

noun The spinal column of a vertebrate.
noun Zoology Any of various pointed projections, processes, or appendages of animals.
noun Botany A strong, sharp-pointed, usually woody outgrowth from a stem or leaf; a thorn.

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In botany, a stiff sharp-pointed process, containing more or less woody tissue, and originating in the degeneracy or modification of some organ. Usually it is a branch or the termination of a stem or branch, indurated, leafless, and attenuated to a point, as in the hawthorn, sloe, pear, and honey-locust; its nature is clearly manifest by the axillary position, and also by the fact that it sometimes produces imperfect leaves and buds. A spine may also consist of a modified leaf (all gradations being found between merely spiny-toothed leaves and leaves which are completely contracted into simple or multiple spines, as in the barberry), or of a persistent petiole, as in some Astragali and in Fouquieria, or of a modified stipule, as in the common locust. A spine is to be clearly distinguished from a prickle, which is merely a superficial outgrowth from the bark. See prickle, 1.
The backbone; the rachis, spina, or spinal column of a vertebrate. The name is due to the series of spinous processes of the several vertebræ which it presents, forming a ridge along the middle of the back. See spinal column (under spinal), and vertebra, vertebral.
A name of some part in various animals. In anatomy, a sharp process, point, or crest of bone; a spinous process, generally stouter than a styloid process: as, the spine of the ilium, of the ischium, of the scapula, of the pubis. See cuts under innominatum and shoulder-blade. In morph., a bony element, or pair of bony elements, which completes a segment of either the neural caual or the hemal canal of a vertebrate on the midline of the dorsal or ventral aspect of the body, the ossification intervening dorsad between a pair of neurapophyses or ventrad between a pair of hemapophyses, the former being a neural spine, the latter a hemal spine. Thus, the spinous process of a dorsal vertebra is the neural spine of that vertebra, and the segment of the sternum with which the rib of that vertebra articulates is the hemal spine of the same vertebra. Owen. See cuts under dorsal, carapace, and endoskeleton. In mammalogy, a modified hair; a sharp, stiff, hard, horny dermal outgrowth, as one of the quills of a porcupine, or of the prickles of the hedgehog or spiny ant-eater. In many animals the transition from soft fur through harsh or bristly pelage to spines is very gradual. See cuts under Echidnidæ. Erinaceus, and porcupine. In ornithology, a spur or calcar, as of the wing or foot; a mucro, as of a feather. See cuts under Palamedea, Rasores, and mucronate. In herpetology, a sharp, prickly scale of considerable size; a horn. See cuts under Cerastes and Phrynosoma. In conchology, any considerable sharp projection of the shell. Such spines are endlessly modified in size, shape, and site. Good examples are figured under murex, scorpion-shell, and Spondylus. In Crustacea, any considerable spinous process of the carapace, of the legs, etc. Such spines are the rule with most crustaceans. The large tail-spine of some is specified as the telson. In entomology, any comparatively short sharp projection of the chitinous body-wall of an insect. Such occur commonly upon the larvæ of Lepidoptera, upon the bodies of many adult Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera, and upon the legs (principally upon the tibiæ) of these and nearly all Orthoptera and many Neuroptera. The body-spines of adult insects are always of great use in classification. In ichth.; (1) A fin-spine; one of the unjointed and unbranched sharp bony rays of the fins, such as those the presence of which gives name to the acanthopterygian fishes; a spinous fin-ray, as distinguished from a soft ray. See ray, 7, and the formula under radial, a. (2) A spinous process, as of an opercular bone. (3) The spinous process of some ganoid, placoid, etc., scales. See cuts under Echinorhinus, sand-fish, scale, searaven, and shackle-joint. In echinoderms, one of the movable processes which beset the exterior, as of an echinus, and are articulated with the tubercles of the body-wall. Primary spines are the large ones forming continuous series along the ambulacra, as distinguished from less-developed secondary and tertiary spines. Other spines are specified as semital. See cuts under Cidaris, Echinometra, Echinus, semita, and Spatangus. In general, some or any hard sharp process, like a spine; a thorn; a prickle: as, the spine at the end of the tail of the lion or the fer-de-lance.

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About three inches to the left of the spine was a dark puncture. — Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh - Alleyn 06: 1938
She carried herself as if her spine were a steel rod with no joints in it. — Vanishing Point - Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver 24: 1953
But as my mount gathered speed, the length of her body tilted forward, until her spine was almost parallel with the ground. — Butcher, Jim - Dead Beat (v1.0) (html).html
As usual with that type of ammo, the entry wound near the spine is the size of my little finger and the exit wound through the chest is the size of my head. — FSF,August2004
Yes, the gelid wind you feel on your spine is the Cold War coming back. — Gizmodo

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spine

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