UMBILICUS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Umbilicus

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noun

Umbilicus n.

(Anat.) The depression, or mark, in the median line of the abdomen, which indicates the point where the umbilical cord separated from the fetus; the navel; the belly button, in humans.

(Gr. & Rom. Antiq.) An ornamented or painted ball or boss fastened at each end of the stick on which manuscripts were rolled.

(Bot.) The hilum.

(Zool.)

(a)

A depression or opening in the center of the base of many spiral shells.

(b)

Either one of the two apertures in the calamus of a feather.

(Geom.)

(a)

One of the foci of an ellipse, or other curve. (Obs.)

(b)

A point of a surface at which the curvatures of the normal sections are all equal to each other. A sphere may be osculatory to the surface in every direction at an umbilicus. Called also umbilic.

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Etymology of 'Umbilicus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Umbilicus" Quotes from Famous Books

... was a sacred and glorious eminence—the umbilicus orbis terrarum—"toward which the heathen in all parts of the world, and in all ages, turned a wistful gaze in every act of devotion, and to which they hoped to be admitted, or, rather, to be restored, at the close of this ...

— The Antediluvian World • Ignatius Donnelly

... to think that he had been selected as the intermediary in this secret romance. Clasping the bouquet in his grimy left hand, he bowed low and placed his equally grimy right in the region of his umbilicus. ...

— Kindred of the Dust • Peter B. Kyne

... unnecessary. In all such cases the absorption of oxygen must be regarded as the stimulus which caused the enlargement of the respiratory membrane. As the allantois could not be absorbed or retracted again into the abdomen, the umbilicus was evolved—that is to say, the scar formed by the union of the folded edge between the body wall and amnion surrounding the stalk of the allantois. It would he difficult for a mutationist to explain how a mutation should affect the development of the cloacal bladder ...

— Hormones and Heredity • J. T. Cunningham

... mid-line a slight furrow extends from the ensiform cartilage above to the symphysis pubis below; this marks the linea alba in the abdominal wall, and about its middle point is the umbilicus or navel. On each side of it the broad recti muscles can be seen in muscular people. The outline of these muscles is interrupted by three or more transverse depressions indicating the lineae transversae in the recti; there is usually one about the ensiform cartilage, one ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

Words linked to "Umbilicus" : venter, vesicula umbilicus, belly, stomach, bellybutton, navel, belly button, point, omphalus, omphalos