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ORIFICE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An aperture or hole that opens into a bodily cavity
Example:
the orifice into the aorta from the lower left chamber of the heart
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("orifice" is a kind of...):
passage; passageway (a path or channel or duct through or along which something may pass)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "orifice"):
rima (a narrow elongated opening or fissure between two symmetrical parts)
naris (any of the openings to the nasal cavities that allow air to flow through the cavities to the pharynx)
fontanel; fontanelle; soft spot (any membranous gap between the bones of the cranium in an infant or fetus)
anus (the excretory opening at the end of the alimentary canal)
pylorus (a small circular opening between the stomach and the duodenum)
external orifice; urethral orifice (the orifice through which urine is discharged)
introitus (entrance or opening to a hollow organ or tube (especially the vaginal opening))
cardia (the opening into the stomach and that part of the stomach connected to the esophagus)
fenestra (a small opening covered with membrane (especially one in the bone between the middle and inner ear))
cervix; cervix uteri; uterine cervix (necklike opening to the uterus)
os (a mouth or mouthlike opening)
mouth (the externally visible part of the oral cavity on the face and the system of organs surrounding the opening)
spiracle (a breathing orifice)
porta hepatis (opening for major blood vessels to enter and leave the liver)
stoma (a mouth or mouthlike opening (especially one created by surgery on the surface of the body to create an opening to an internal organ))
aortic orifice (the orifice from the lower left chamber of the heart to the aorta)
blastopore (the opening into the archenteron)
vent (external opening of urinary or genital system of a lower vertebrate)
Context examples:
Narrowing of the orifice of the aortic valve or of the supravalvular or subvalvular regions.
(Aortic Stenosis, NCI Thesaurus)
The leakage of a substance from a body orifice or break in skin integrity.
(Body Substance Discharge, NCI Thesaurus)
A specially formulated and shaped non-encapsulated solid preparation intended to be placed into a non-rectal orifice of the body, where drug is released, generally for localized effects.
(Insert Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)
Any portion of the aorta including the ascending and descending aorta, and aortic arch or a portion of the aortic orifice of the left ventricle.
(Aortic Segment, NCI Thesaurus)
A large orifice in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the cranial cavity.
(Foramen Magnum, NCI Thesaurus)
But when the disease was more stubborn and violent, he let in the muzzle while the bellows were full of wind, which he discharged into the body of the patient; then withdrew the instrument to replenish it, clapping his thumb strongly against the orifice of then fundament; and this being repeated three or four times, the adventitious wind would rush out, bringing the noxious along with it, (like water put into a pump), and the patient recovered.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
For nature (as the physicians allege) having intended the superior anterior orifice only for the intromission of solids and liquids, and the inferior posterior for ejection, these artists ingeniously considering that in all diseases nature is forced out of her seat, therefore, to replace her in it, the body must be treated in a manner directly contrary, by interchanging the use of each orifice; forcing solids and liquids in at the anus, and making evacuations at the mouth.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Their next business is from herbs, minerals, gums, oils, shells, salts, juices, sea-weed, excrements, barks of trees, serpents, toads, frogs, spiders, dead men’s flesh and bones, birds, beasts, and fishes, to form a composition, for smell and taste, the most abominable, nauseous, and detestable, they can possibly contrive, which the stomach immediately rejects with loathing, and this they call a vomit; or else, from the same store-house, with some other poisonous additions, they command us to take in at the orifice above or below (just as the physician then happens to be disposed) a medicine equally annoying and disgustful to the bowels; which, relaxing the belly, drives down all before it; and this they call a purge, or a clyster.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
