Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A comma-shaped bone of the human wrist, located in the first row of carpals.
  • noun A concave bone of the human foot, located between the talus and the metatarsals.
  • adjective Shaped like a boat; scaphoid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relating to small ships or boats; shaped like a boat; cymbiform. Specifically
  • In anatomy, scaphoid: applied to certain bones of the hand and foot. See II.
  • In entomology, oblong or ovate, with a concave disk and raised margins, as the bodies of certain insects.
  • In botany, resembling or belonging to the genus Navicula; boat-shaped.
  • noun In anatomy:
  • noun The scaphoid bone of the carpus; the radiale, or bone of the proximal row on the radial side of the wrist. See cut under hand.
  • noun The scaphoid bone of the tarsus, a bone of the proximal row, on the inner or tibial side, in special relation with the astragalus and the cuneiform bones. See cut under foot.
  • noun A large transversely extended sesamoid bone developed in the tendon of the deep flexor, at the back of the distal phalangeal articulation of the foot of the horse, between the coronary and the coffin-bone. See cut under fetter-bone.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) The navicular bone.
  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a boat or ship.
  • adjective Shaped like a boat; cymbiform; scaphoid
  • adjective (Anat.) A proximal bone on the radial side of the carpus; the scaphoid.
  • adjective (Far.) a disease affecting the navicular bone, or the adjacent parts, in a horse's foot.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Shaped like a boat.
  • noun anatomy A navicular bone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the largest wrist bone on the thumb side
  • adjective shaped like a boat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin nāvicula, boat, diminutive of nāvis, ship; see nāu- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • He told the court Mr Ladhams failed to reveal during negotiations for the sale that Sound Action had undergone extensive treatment for what is known as a "navicular" problem in her front hooves.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2011

  • If the foot be forcibly extended, the head of the talus appears as a rounded prominence on the medial side of the dorsum; just in front of this prominence and behind the tuberosity of the navicular is the talonavicular joint.

    XII. Surface Anatomy and Surface Markings. 14. Surface Markings of the Lower Extremity 1918

  • 1819 Moorcroft made it even plainer still that he was fully acquainted with what we now know as navicular disease.

    Diseases of the Horse's Foot Harry Caulton Reeks

  • It may accompany chronic diseases of the foot, such as navicular disease and side-bones.

    Common Diseases of Farm Animals R. A. Craig

  • _ -- Horses knuckling at the fetlock, and all those with diseases which impair the powers of locomotion, such as navicular disease, contracted heels, sidebones, chronic laminitis, etc., are predisposed to sprains of the fetlock.

    Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Charles B. Michener 1877

  • 'navicular' have in reality been nothing more than contraction brought about by one or other of the causes we shall afterwards enumerate -- cases where a due attention to the prime cause of the mischief would, in all likelihood, have remedied the lameness.

    Diseases of the Horse's Foot Harry Caulton Reeks

  • For the price of admission, you not only get to see the competitions, but there are lectures on navicular, the pre-purchase exam, growing and baling your own hay, and equine ulcers.

    Biggest Horseshow in the Country | myFiveBest 2009

  • On the cart lay the following: proximal and distal portions of a left femur; a fragment of proximal left fibula; two fragments of left tibia, one proximal, the other distal, including the mangled malleolus; a portion of left pelvis extending from the pubic bone out into the blade; the talus, navicular, and third and second cuneiforms from a left foot.

    Spider Bones Kathy Reichs 2010

  • The “hobbit” navicular bone is more akin to that found in great apes, which means that these hominins lacked an arch and were not efficient long-term runners.

    ‘Hobbits’ Couldn’t Hustle | Impact Lab 2009

  • But the pivotal clue comes from the navicular bone, an important tarsal bone that helps form the arch in a modern human foot.

    ‘Hobbits’ Couldn’t Hustle | Impact Lab 2009

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