‖ meatus
(miːˈeɪtəs)
Pl. meatus (miːˈeɪtjuːs), meatuses.
[L. meātus (u-stem), f. meāre to flow, run.]
† 1. A natural channel or tubular passage. Obs.
| 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 187 This Caspian hath some secret meatus or intercourse with some Sea. 1675 Evelyn Terra (1776) 34 Clay is of all others a curst Stepdame to almost all vegetation as having few or no Meatus's for the percolation of the alimental showers or expansion of the roots. 1698 E. Lhuyd in Ray's Disc. (1713) 190 The Chinks and other Meatus's of the Earth. |
2. spec. in Anat. † a. = pore (obs.). b. With qualifying word expressed or understood, applied to certain passages in the body.
auditory meatus (L. m. auditorius): the channel of the ear. nasal meatus or olfactory meatus: the passage of the nose. urinary meatus: the external orifice of the urethra.
| 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. iv. §3. 18 The meatus, or passages, through which those subtill emissaries are conveyed to the respective members. 1708 Kersey, Meatus, a Movement, or Course, a Passage, or Way; also the Pores of the Body. 1800 Sir A. Cooper in Phil. Trans. XC. 152 A membrane which has been generally considered, from its situation in the meatus..as essentially necessary to the sense of hearing. 1878 Holden Hum. Osteol. 132 The three ‘meatus’ or passages of the nose. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 540 Over the vertex [of the head] from meatus to meatus measures 153/4 in. |