English
spine
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) IPA: /spaɪn/
Noun

spine (plural spines)

  1. The series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a person, or from the head to the tail of an animal; backbone, vertebral column.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, chapter 80:
      If you attentively regard almost any quadruped's spine, you will be struck with the resemblance of its vertebrae to a strung necklace of dwarfed skulls.
  2. Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.
    1. The narrow, bound edge of a book.
  3. A pointed, fairly rigid protuberance or needle-like structure on an animal, shell, or plant.
    • 1871, Charles Darwin, , chapter XII:
      The male, as Dr. Gunther informs me, has a cluster of stiff, straight spines, like those of a comb, on the sides of the tail.
  4. The heartwood of trees.
  5. (figurative) Courage or assertiveness.
  6. The stiffness of an arrow.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary