Definitions

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

  • adjective Of, relating to, or situated near the spine or spinal cord; vertebral.
  • adjective Resembling a spine or spinous part.
  • noun An anesthetic injected into the spinal cord to induce partial or complete anesthesia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In anatomy:
  • Of or pertaining to the backbone, spine, or spinal column; rachidian; vertebral: as, spinal arteries, bones, muscles, nerves; spinal curvature; a spinal complaint.
  • Pertaining to a spine or spinous process of bone; spinous; as, the spinal point (the base of the nasal spine, or subnasal point): specificallyused in craniometry.

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

  • adjective (Anat.) Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the backbone, or vertebral column; rachidian; vertebral.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a spine or spines.
  • adjective the eleventh pair of cranial nerves in the higher vertebrates. They originate from the spinal cord and pass forward into the skull, from which they emerge in company with the pneumogastrics.
  • adjective the backbone, or connected series or vertebræ which forms the axis of the vertebrate skeleton; the spine; rachis; vertebral column.
  • adjective the great nervous cord extending backward from the brain along the dorsal side of the spinal column of a vertebrate animal, and usually terminating in a threadlike appendage called the filum terminale; the spinal, or vertebral, marrow; the myelon. The nervous tissue consists of nerve fibers and nerve cells, the latter being confined to the so-called gray matter of the central portions of the cord, while the peripheral white matter is composed of nerve fibers only. The center of the cord is traversed by a slender canal connecting with the ventricles of the brain.

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

  • adjective of or relating to the spine

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

  • adjective of or relating to the spine or spinal cord
  • noun anesthesia of the lower half of the body; caused by injury to the spinal cord or by injecting an anesthetic beneath the arachnoid membrane that surrounds the spinal cord

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin spīnālis, from Latin spīna.

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Examples

  • Immediately after a spinal cord injury the paralyzed parts are in ‘spinal shock’, and are loose or ‘floppy’.

    1) Head Control and Use of Senses 1999

  • Corresponding to the skull and the spinal column is a central nervous axis, made up of two parts, the _brain_ and the _spinal cord_.

    Physiology and Hygiene for Secondary Schools Francis M. Walters

  • The spinal cord, though it is between one-half and three-fourths of an inch across, or about the size of an ordinary blackboard pointer, has little or none of this fibrous tissue in it, and is very soft and delicate, easily torn when its bony case is broken; hence its old name, the _spinal marrow_, from its apparent resemblance to the marrow, or soft fat, in the hollow of a bone.

    A Handbook of Health Woods Hutchinson 1896

  • This means they are designed to hold the spine in one position, or what we call spinal neutral, while the larger, more powerful muscles of the hip and legs are designed to perform the actual lifting, pulling, etc.

    CITIZEN-TIMES.com - News 2010

  • This means they are designed to hold the spine in one position, or what we call spinal neutral, while the larger, more powerful muscles of the hip and legs are designed to perform the actual lifting, pulling, etc.

    CITIZEN-TIMES.com - News 2010

  • Botched suicide attempted resulted in spinal cord injury.

    Heroes or Villains? 2010

  • Kerr looks thoughtful for a moment before telling me about newborn infants he works with who suffer from what is known as spinal muscular atrophy.

    The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa 2008

  • Kerr looks thoughtful for a moment before telling me about newborn infants he works with who suffer from what is known as spinal muscular atrophy.

    The Autoimmune Epidemic Donna Jackson Nakazawa 2008

  • But as part of the first generation of people living with long-term spinal-cord injuries, Brown is a pioneer.

    Redefining ‘Cured’ 2009

  • It is a controversial treatment that has not been established as a standard of care in spinal cord injuries and is the subject of considerable debate in the field.

    The Road Back « Isegoria 2007

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