‖ terebra
(ˈtɛrɪbrə)
Also 7–8 terebrum.
[L. terebra, terebrum a borer.]
† 1. An instrument for boring; in Surgery, a trephine, or the boring part of it; also, a miner's drill. Obs.
| 1611 Cotgr., Tirefond de Chirurgien, a Surgeons Terebra, or Piercer; an Instrument which he puts vnto diuers vses. 1704 Ray Disc. ii. v. (1713) 224 This ends at the Place which the Workmen pierce with their Terebra... The Terebra sometimes finds great Trees. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Terebra, or Terebrum,..also an Instrument to engrave on Stones. 1750 Mem. Roy. Acad. Surg. Paris I. 162 Instruments hitherto used to raise the bones of the cranium depressed on the dura mater are..the Terebra. 1787 C. B. Trye in Med. Commun. II. 149, I made several perforations in the cranium with the terebra of the trephine. |
2. Ent. The modified ovipositor of certain female insects, esp. terebrant Hymenoptera, with which they puncture leaves, fruit, etc., in order to insert their eggs.
| [1691 Ray Creation ii. (1692) 78 The hollow Instrument (terebra he [Malpighi] calls it, and we may English it piercer) wherewith many Flies are provided.] 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. viii. vi. 429 The..Oak-Ball Ichneumon strikes its Terebra into an Oak-Apple. |