Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large, highly vascular lymphoid organ, lying in the human body to the left of the stomach below the diaphragm, serving to store blood, disintegrate old blood cells, filter foreign substances from the blood, and produce lymphocytes.
- n. A homologous organ or tissue in other vertebrates.
- n. Obsolete This organ conceived as the seat of emotions or passions.
- n. Ill temper: vent one's spleen.
- n. Archaic Melancholy.
- n. Obsolete A whim; a caprice.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A non-glandular, highly vascular organ which is situated in the abdomen, on the left side, in connection with the digestive organs, and in which the blood undergoes certain modifications in respect of its corpuscles. This viscus has no proper secretion and no excretory duct, and in these respects agrees with the thyroid, thymus, and adrenal bodies. In man the spleen is of an oblong flattened form, dark livid-red in color, soft and friable in texture, and extremely vascular. It lies in the left hypochondriac region, capping the cardiac end of the stomach. The spleen has been supposed to be the seat of various emotions. Its enlargement or induration, under malarial poisoning, is known as ague-cake. See cut under
pancreas . - n. Ill humor; melancholy; low spirits.
- n. Bad temper; anger; ill-will; malice; latent spite; grudge: as, to vent one's spleen; a fit of the spleen.
- n. A sudden impulse, fancy, or caprice; a whim.
- n. Mood; disposition.
- To deprive of the spleen; extirpate the spleen of. Animals subjected to this operation tend to become fat, and may live for an indefinite period apparently in perfect health.
- To anger; annoy.
- To dislike; hate.
- To have a loathing; become disgusted.
Wiktionary
- n. anatomy, immunology In vertebrates, including humans, a ductless vascular gland, located in the left upper abdomen near the stomach, which destroys old red blood cells, removes debris from the bloodstream, acts as a reservoir of blood, and produces lymphocytes.
- n. archaic A bad mood; spitefulness.
- v. obsolete, transitive To dislike.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Anat.) A peculiar glandlike but ductless organ found near the stomach or intestine of most vertebrates and connected with the vascular system; the milt. Its exact function in not known.
- n. Anger; latent spite; ill humor; malice.
- n. A fit of anger; choler.
- n. Obs. or R. A sudden motion or action; a fit; a freak; a whim.
- n. Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.
- n. obsolete A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment.
- v. obsolete To dislke.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a large dark-red oval organ on the left side of the body between the stomach and the diaphragm; produces cells involved in immune responses
- n. a feeling of resentful anger
Etymologies
- From Old French esplen, from Latin splēn, from Ancient Greek σπλήν (splēn, "the spleen"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English splen, from Old French esplen, from Latin splēn, from Greek. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“After we had fed, we drew ourselves back to our boats upon the river, and there came to us all the lords of the country, with all such kind of victual as the place yielded, and with their delicate wine of pinas, and with abundance of hens and other provisions, and of those stones which we call spleen-stones.”
“When the spleen is large, your physician may prescribe a spleen guard to be worn during gym or during certain activities to protect the spleen from injury.”
“You know it's a good post when a humming birds spleen is used as a frame of reference though I do believe the aforementioned bases/rings are way heavier than a gnats ass!”
“The full review is only available online to subscribers, but you can get a sense of his level of spleen from the opening paragraphs.”
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“The liver is long and simple; the spleen is short and round: as is the case in both respects with the saurians.”
“The spleen is anatomically well adapted for use in these experiments, and the replantation of this organ can be taken as characteristic of this kind of operation.”
“The feelings manifested by Michal were only an ebullition of spleen from a proud and passionate woman.”
“As I approached the forbidding edifice that is Tony Conigliaro Consolidated Elementary School, my heart sank from its perch just above the ruffled v-neck of my blouse to a point slightly below my spleen, which is a vascular, ductless organ whose principal functions are the storage of blood and production of lymphocytes.”
“As I approached the forbidding edifice that is Tony Conigliaro Consolidated Elementary School, my heart sank from its perch just above the ruffled v-neck of my blouse to a point slightly below my spleen, which is a vascular, ductless organ whose principal functions are the storage of blood and production of lymphocytes.”
“On top of constantly eating anything that I craved, I could not exercise due to fatigue and the risk of rupturing my spleen, which is a concern during and after having mono.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spleen’.
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Meat Parts: the Cuts, the Innards, an...
T-bone - Sounds good!
Shoulder - Alright.
Liver - Fine.
Sweetbread - Okay.
Gizzard - Pushing it.
Brains - What?!wing, wedge bone sirloin, veal, umbles, tri-tip, tripe, triangle steak, tournedo, top sirloin, top loin, tongue, thigh and 147 more...
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GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 102 more...
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•body-related words that make lovely ...
With thanks to quinn for the idea, seen here. It's true that most diseases cannot double as names for baby boys—but some can. And anyway in their absence I nominate (thanks to Colon/Colin) body p...
colon, lung, langerhans, cuticle, spleen, glottis, calyx, anus, peter, pertussis, strabismus, erysipelas and 26 more...
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Random Words! Add Your Own! :D
Randomness time! Add your own words. ❤
Love, bucket, brigade, actuary, canal, canasta, why is the door open, coconut, stochastic, haphazard, accidental, chance and 38 more...
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filter
strain rain, porous apour, per-meate, extravasate, glomerulus, percolate, per-collate, bitumastic, passband, Proxomitron, reredos, sporgery and 27 more...
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Funny Words
gerbil, spleen, regurgitate, crevis, retro, orangutan, jiggly, ear, tart, pickle, fizzle, kapow and 4 more...
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words my students purport to love
utilize, pudding, Indeed, kumquat, spleen, schadenfreude, slush, juxtapose, discombobulate, brackish, resuscitate, vapid
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Words that are fun to say
gerbil, spleen, rickshaw, ripley, crevis, you, po, hermes, girl, yo, reality, grockle and 8 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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diioxyde's Words
macabre, egypt, egyptology, queen, love, sex, sister, lover, web, cobweb, line, circle and 223 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Anatomically Correct
canthus, vibrissa, femoral, sphenoid, dura mater, pia mater, epiglottis, glottis, mons veneris, plaque, tibia, ulna and 96 more...
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adamogiovane's Words
older woman, younger man, age gap relationship, non-fiction, sensuality, relationship, life, sex, love, hugs, kisses, breast and 147 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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wanderstar's Words
superlative, mulish, mumps, catatonic, aquiline, clandestine, phantasmagoria, chryselephantine, microfiche, mutineer, reprobate, ruthless and 312 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spleen.
fbharjo spleendor is not crass Mar 4, 2013