‖ sulcus
(ˈsʌlkəs)
Pl. sulci (ˈsʌlsaɪ).
[L. = furrow, trench, ditch, wrinkle.]
1. a. A groove made with an engraving tool. b. A trench. c. A hollow or depression in the land. rare.
| 1662 Evelyn Sculptura 126 Monsieur Bosse's invention of the Eschoppe, does render the making of this Sulcus, much more facile. 1675 ― Terra (1729) 14 The Sulcus or Trench be made to run from North to South. 1901 A. Trotter East Galloway Sk. 158/2 The house..is situated in a sulcus of fertile land. |
2. Anat. A groove or furrow in a body, organ, or tissue.
| 1744 tr. Boerhaave's Inst. III. 297 The sensible Papillæ lie concealed in the Sulci formed by the Cuticle. 1766 Complete Farmer s.v. Shoeing, The sulcus of the inner surface of the hoof. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) V. 252 Hydatids have found the means of forming a nidus in some one of the sulci of the womb. 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 27 Sulci, like carinæ, are of all shapes, sizes and positions. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 227 A distinct sulcus between the liver and gall bladder is nearly always perceptible to the touch. |
b. spec. A fissure between two convolutions of the brain.
| 1833 Cycl. Pract. Med. I. 286/2 The sulci which separate the convolutions. 1840 G. V. Ellis Anat. 15 On its under surface, near the median fissure of the brain, is a sulcus, which lodges the olfactory nerve. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 273 That portion of the cerebral hemisphere which lies anterior to the precentral sulcus. |
3. Bot. The lamella in some fungi.
| 1856 Henslow Dict. Bot. Terms 90. |