Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The outer and narrower of two bones of the human lower leg, extending from the knee to the ankle.
- noun The corresponding bone in the leg or hind limb of other vertebrates.
- noun An often ornamented clasp or brooch used in ancient Greece and Rome to fasten clothes.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In archaeology, a clasp or brooch, usually more or less ornamented. Objects of this kind are found among the earliest metallic remains of antiquity.
- noun In surgery, a needle for sewing up wounds.
- noun In anatomy, the outer one of two bones which in most vertebrates (above fishes) extend from the knee to the ankle: so called because in man the bone is very slender, like a clasp or splint applied alongside the tibia.
- noun In masonry, an iron crank used to fasten stones together.
- noun In zoology: A genus of echinoderms.
- noun A genus of mollusks.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A brooch, clasp, or buckle.
- noun (Anat.) The outer and usually the smaller of the two bones of the leg, or hind limb, below the knee.
- noun (Surg.) A needle for sewing up wounds.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun anatomy The smaller of the two
bones in the lower leg, thecalf bone . - noun An ancient kind of
brooch used to hold clothing together, similar in function to the modernsafety pin .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the outer and thinner of the two bones of the human leg between the knee and ankle
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Tyson Thompson, recovered from a fractured fibula, is a legit No. 3.
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Like the tibia they had found the previous season, the fibula was a slender, short bone, and Louis surmised that the leg did not belong to Zinj after all, but to his consort.
Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995
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Like the tibia they had found the previous season, the fibula was a slender, short bone, and Louis surmised that the leg did not belong to Zinj after all, but to his consort.
Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995
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The only subcutaneous parts of the fibula are the head, the lower part of the body, and the lateral malleolus.
XII. Surface Anatomy and Surface Markings. 13. Surface Anatomy of the Lower Extremity 1918
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In the latter also the fibula, which is anchylosed to the end of the tibia, articulates with the calcaneum or heel-bone, which is not the case with the simple-toothed rodents.
Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Robert Armitage Sterndale 1870
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He had a broken right shin and a broken right fibula, which is the bone beside the shin.
JSOnline.com 2010
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The fibula is the smaller of the two bones and apparently means he's likely to miss 6-8 ...
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He had a broken right shin and a broken right fibula, which is the bone beside the shin.
JSOnline.com 2010
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My thoughts are with him and his family. 12 weeks sounds like he only broke the fibula, which is the small skinny bone in the leg.
thejetsblog.com 2009
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The small bone on the outside of the knee, known as the fibula, is not involved in weight bearing nor is actually part of the knee joint, serving only as an attachment area for the muscles controlling the ankle, foot and toes.
We Blog A Lot 2009
treeseed commented on the word fibula
See also safety pin
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
noun
Inflected Form(s): plural fib·u·lae \-lē, -lī\ or fib·u·las
Etymology: Latin, pin, clasp; akin to Latin figere to fasten
Date: 1578
1 : the outer and usually smaller of the two bones between the knee and ankle in the hind or lower limbs of vertebrates
2 : a clasp resembling a safety pin used especially by the ancient Greeks and Romans
February 1, 2008