enucleation
(ɪˌnjuːklɪˈeɪʃən)
[as if ad. L. *ēnucleātiōn-em, f. ēnucleāre: see enucleate v. Cf. Fr. énucleation.]
1. The action of enucleating, or getting out the ‘kernel’ of a matter; unfolding, explanation.
| 1650 S. Clarke Eccl. Hist. i. (1654) 326 To which they added an enucleation of hard texts. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies i. ix. 27, I say therefore, toward the Enucleation of the Question, etc. 1796 Pegge Anonym. viii. lxxxiii. (1809) 382 Another enucleation of this difficult ecclesiastical term. 1840 Blackw. Mag. XLVIII. 274 The enucleation of separate parts of that which his ambitious intellect yearned towards the production of as a whole. 1862 F. Hall Hindu Canons of Dramaturgy (1865) 9 Its writer rarely propounds for scholastic enucleation such an enigma as, etc. |
2. Surg. a. ‘The shelling out of a tumour, or a structure, or a part, from its capsule or enclosing substance’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
| 1874 Roosa Dis. Ear 107 Sebaceous tumours should be removed by enucleation. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Theory & Pract. Med. (ed. 2) 53 They..are..capable of pretty easy enucleation from the tissues in which they are imbedded. |
b. The removal of an eye from the socket.
| 1867 H. Power Dis. Eye x. 582 Enucleation of the eye. 1949 A. D. Ruedemann in C. Berens Eye & its Diseases (ed. 2) lxix. 983 The nerve may be grasped with enucleation forceps to facilitate the excision of a long piece of the optic nerve. |
3. Biol. The extraction of a nucleus from its cell.
| 1909 in Webster. 1960 L. Picken Organization of Cells iv. vi. 139 The amoeba is unable to spread after enucleation and remains rounded up. |