flexion, flection
(ˈflɛkʃən)
[ad. L. flexiōn-em, n. of action f. flectĕre (ppl. stem flex-) to bend. Cf. Fr. flexion, Sp. flexion, It. flessione. The etymological spelling flexion is the original in Eng.; flection (first in 18th c.) is due to the influence of such words as affection, direction, etc.]
1. The action of bending, curvature; bent condition; an instance of this.
| 1656 Hobbes Six Less. Wks. 1845 VII. 260 It is the quantity of that crookedness or flexion, by which a straight line is bent into an arch of a circle equal to it. 1659 Pearson Creed vi. 562 Thus to sit doth not signifie any peculiar inclination or flexion. 1796 Brougham in Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 227 Flexion, or the bending of the rays [of light] in their passage by bodies. 1807 Robinson Archæol. Græca iii. xx. 323 Eluding the stroke of the adversary by a flexion of the body. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 692 The flexions..of the stem and leaf-stalk produced by the wind. |
| attrib. 1869 Bigelow (title) On the Mechanism of Dislocation and Fracture of the Hip. With the Reduction of the Dislocation by the Flexion Method. |
b. esp. The bending of a limb or joint by the action of the flexor muscles.
Cf. extension 2.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 989 By this articulation both flexion and extention is made. 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 121 Delicate flexions..of the Fingers. 1799 Med. Jrnl. II. 166 It did not produce a perceptible flexion of the tibia. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 256/1 When two segments of a limb..can be brought to form an angle with each other, the motion is that of flexion. 1881 Mivart Cat 117 This ligament aids powerfully in preventing the flexion of the knee forwards. |
c. A kneeling (in prayer), genuflexion.
rare.
| 1862 Lond. Rev. 30 Aug., Next followed two prayer flections at the Tomb of Abraham. |
† d. A turning of the eye in any direction.
Obs.| 1626 Bacon Sylva §719 Pity causeth sometimes..a Flexion or Cast of the Eye aside. |
† 2. Alteration, change, modification.
Obs.| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1251 In every one of them Sacadas made a certeine flexion..called Strophe. 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 123 Oratours..(who hunted also after delicate flexions of words). 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. v. §35 The Flexion of his condition (I mean, the altering of his occasions). |
b. A modification of the sound or tone of the voice in singing or speaking; inflexion.
| 1758 Johnson Idler No. 25 ¶5 Variation of gesture, and flexion of voice, are to be obtained only by experience. 1846 Grote Greece i. xxi. (1862) I. 530 Flexions and intonations of the voice. |
3. concr. The bent part of anything; a bend, curve. Also, a joint.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 204 Being vnable to rise againe because of the short Nerues and no flexions in his Legs. 1626 Bacon Sylva §222 Of a Sinuous Pipe, that may haue some foure Flexions, Triall would be made. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. III. 20/1 There are like flexions in the boughs of trees. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 61 He put a blister..below the flexion on the anterior part of the thigh. 1867 Howells Ital. Journ. 56 A cavernous arcade which curves round the water with the flection of the shore. |
4. Gram. Modification of the form of a word;
esp. the change of ending in conjugation, declension, etc.; inflexion. Also, the modified form or ending of a word.
| 1605 Camden Rem. (1657) 39 Neither are we loaden with those declensions, flexions, and variations which are incident to many other tongues. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. xi. 61 Those very words..differ somewhat in the sound of the vowels and flexion. 1720 De Foe Duncan Campbell (1841) 37 The flexion or conjugation of the verb. 1773 Ld. Monboddo Lang. I. iii. xiv. 672 Proper terminations and flections. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 175 The common grammatic flexions of some tribe or province. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. xii. 241 An agglutinative dialect..with no determinate flexion. |
5. Math. = flexure 6.
| 1704 Hayes Treat. Fluxions vi. 153 The Use of Fluxions in Investigating the Points of contrary Flexion and Retrogression of Curves. 1857 Nichol Cycl. Phys. Sc. s.v., The mathematical theory of Flexion starts from the basis or datum of this Line of No-disturbance. |