Definitions

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

  • noun The spinal column of a vertebrate.
  • noun Zoology Any of various pointed projections, processes, or appendages of animals.
  • noun A strong, sharp-pointed outgrowth derived from a leaf or leaf part.
  • noun Any of various similar sharp structures, such as a thorn.
  • noun Something that resembles or suggests a backbone, as.
  • noun The hinged back of a book.
  • noun The crest of a ridge.
  • noun Strength of character; courage or willpower.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, a stiff sharp-pointed process, containing more or less woody tissue, and originating in the degeneracy or modification of some organ.
  • noun The backbone; the rachis, spina, or spinal column of a vertebrate.
  • noun A name of some part in various animals.
  • noun In much., any longitudinal ridge; a fin.
  • noun In lace-making, a raised projection from the cordonnet: one of the varieties of pinwork; especially, one of many small points that project outward from the edge of the lace, forming a sort of fringe.
  • noun The duramen or heartwood of trees: a ship-builders' term. See duramen.
  • noun and hemal.
  • noun One of the quills of a harpsichord or spinet.
  • noun Specifically, a sharp, columnar mass of solidified lava which was forced upward to a height of over 1,000 feet above the summit of Mount Pelée, Martinique, in 1903. See volcano, 1. It constituted a new phenomenon in vulcanology. See cut under cumulo-volcano.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A sharp appendage to any of a plant; a thorn.
  • noun A rigid and sharp projection upon any part of an animal.
  • noun One of the rigid and undivided fin rays of a fish.
  • noun (Anat.) The backbone, or spinal column, of an animal; -- so called from the projecting processes upon the vertebræ.
  • noun Anything resembling the spine or backbone; a ridge.

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

  • noun A person or thing's backbone; the series of bones collectively from one's (literal or figurative) head to tail or pelvis.
  • noun A rigid, pointed surface protuberance or needle-like structure on an animal, shell, or plant.
  • noun Courage or assertiveness.
  • noun The narrow, bound edge of a book.

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

  • noun a sharp rigid animal process or appendage; as a porcupine quill or a ridge on a bone or a ray of a fish fin
  • noun a small sharp-pointed tip resembling a spike on a stem or leaf
  • noun the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
  • noun the part of a book's cover that encloses the inner side of the book's pages and that faces outward when the book is shelved
  • noun any sharply pointed projection

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French espine, from Latin spīna.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French espine (modern French épine) or its source, Latin spīna.

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Examples

Comments

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  • In bookbinding, the part of the book visible as the book stands on the shelf in conventional fashion (i.e., not "faced out").

    February 25, 2008