▪ I. clavicle1
(ˈklævɪk(ə)l)
[ad. L. clāvicula (in 16th c. F. clavicule) small key, tendril, bar or bolt of a door, dim. of clāvis key: in med.L. ‘collar-bone’, according to Littré ‘because it was compared to the key of a vault, or, as others think, because its form is that of the ancient bolts’.]
1. Anat. The collar-bone, which extends from the breast-bone to the shoulder-blade, forming part of the pectoral arch. In birds the two clavicles are united at their lower extremities into one bone, the furculum or ‘merry-thought’.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 392 These Clauicles on either side fasten the shoulder blade to the brast-bone. Ibid. 901 These nerues run vnder the clauicle or cannell bone. 1685 Cooke Marrow Chirurg. (ed. 4) i. i. 8. 1854 Hooker Himal. Jrnls. i. iv. 99 To ease their aching clavicles. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., The clavicle is absent, among Mammals, in Ungulata and Cetacea, and in many Carnivora and Rodentia. |
† 2. Bot. A tendril, clasper, cirrus. Obs.
| 1725 Sloane Jamaica II. 158 It climbs..like Ivy, with broad and soft clavicles. 1750 G. Hughes Barbadoes App. 316 Clavicles, Claspers, or Tendrils, are the young Shoots of creeping scandent Plants. |
† 3. Conch. The upper part of a spiral shell. Obs.
| [1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 31 Clavicule, the pyramidal interior and exterior part of a twisted, or spiral shell, beginning near the middle, and ending near the summit. Sometimes called the head.] 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) II. iv. iv. 358 Freshwater shells want..solidity..their clavicle as it is called is neither so prominent nor so strong. |
▪ II. † ˈclavicle2 Obs. rare.
[ad. L. type *clāviculus, dim. of clavus nail, wart, corn.]
A wart.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 104 The liquour thereof, applied helps clavicles in the hands. |