dextral, a. (and n.)
(ˈdɛkstrəl)
[f. L. dextra right hand + -al1. Late L. has dextrālis, dextrāle as ns.]
1. a. Situated on the right side of the body; right, as opposed to left.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. v. 188 Which should hinder the Liver from enabling the dextrall parts. 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. iv. 452 Throw wide that portal; let no Roman wait, But march with Priestly through the dextral gate. |
† b. Of omens: Auspicious, favourable. Obs.
| 1774 Poetry in Ann. Reg. 203 No eastern meteor glar'd beneath the sky, No dextral omen. |
c. That uses the right hand in preference to the left; right-handed: see dextrality 2. Hence as n., a (predominantly) right-handed person.
| 1871 Lancet i. 49 On Dextral Pre-eminence by William Ogle M.D. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 6 Aug. 11/3 As if fate had chosen to make it a dextral child. 1927 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. XXXVIII. 327 People fall into four groups, pure or crossed dextrals, and pure or crossed sinistrals... In the pure dextral there is right-handedness and a dominant right eye. 1964 M. Critchley Developmental Dyslexia viii. 54 A fair number of dyslexics are unequivocal dextrals with no family history of left-handedness or ambidexterity. |
2. Conchol. Of a gastropod shell: Having the spire or whorl ascending from left to right (i.e. of the external spectator), which is the prevalent form.
| 1847 Craig, s.v., A dextral shell, as in mostly all univalves, has its turns or convolutions from left to right when placed in a perpendicular position. 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 241 In the first instance the shell is termed dextral; in the latter it is called sinistral or reversed. 1854 Woodward Mollusca (1856) 46 Left-handed, or reversed, varieties of spiral shells have been met with in some of the very common species, like the whelk and garden snail. Bulimus citrinus is as often sinistral as dextral. 1866 Tate Brit. Mollusks iii. 45 When the aperture of the shell is on the right-hand side it is said to be dextral. |