orifice
(ˈɒrɪfɪs)
Also 6 orifis, oryfice, -fyce.
[a. F. orifice (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. late Lat. ōrificium, f. ōs, ōr- mouth + facĕre, in comp. -ficĕre, to make.]
An opening or aperture, which serves as, or has the form of a mouth, as of a tube, of the stomach, bladder or other bodily organ, of a wound, etc.; the mouth of any cavity, a perforation or vent. (Formerly including larger openings than now, e.g. the mouth of a cave, a mine, etc.)
| 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. H j, And ouer the thre oryfyces of the sayde thre ventrycles there be thre pellycles. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. xii. 22 That same former fatall wound of his..closely rankled under th' orifis. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. (1668) i. Table Hard Words, Orifice is the mouth, hole, or open passage of any wound or ulcer. 1623 Hart Arraignm. Ur. i. ii. 4 Both the bladders together with their orifices and concavities. 1671 J. Webster Metallogr. vi. 108 It guided me to the orifice of a Lead Mine. 1682 Grew Anat. Leaves i. iv. §2 Certain open Pores or Orifices. 1700 Addison æneid iii. Misc. Wks. 1726 I. 62 There gap'd The spacious hollow where his eye-ball roll'd, A ghastly orifice. 1713 ― Guard. No. 103 ¶6 The mountain resembled ætna, being bored through the top with a monstrous orifice. 1858 Lardner Hand-bk. Nat. Phil. 80 The squares of the velocities of the liquid in passing through the orifice are proportional to the depth. 1862 Darwin Fertil. Orchids iii. 125 The orifice into the nectar-receptacle lies..close to the lower side of the flower. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 189 The solid matters..fall in showers around the mouth of the orifice. |