comminution
(kɒmɪˈnjuːʃən)
[f. L. type comminūtiōn-em, n. of action f. comminu-ĕre: see prec. Not recorded in class. Latin (which has minūtio, diminūtio).]
1. Reduction or breaking up into small fragments; pulverization, trituration.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 13 Hardnes [of the teeth]..necessary to the Comminution of meate. 1691 Ray Creation (1714) 28 In all sorts of serpents there is no Mastication or Comminution of the Meat. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 33 The whole sulphur..suffers no change but comminution. 1878 Bell Gegenbauer's Comp. Anat. 213 The organs for the comminution of the food. |
b. Surg. Cf. comminuted 2.
| 1820 Sir A. Cooper Surg. Ess. ii. (ed. 2) 138 Compound fracture of the thigh attended with considerable comminutions of the femur. |
2. transf.
| 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 108 ¶4 This natural and necessary comminution of our lives. 1881 Times 23 July 11/5 The perpetual comminution, not to say destruction, of personal influence by change of locality [in Wesleyanism]. |
3. Math. Proposed by De Morgan for ‘diminution (of two quantities) together without limit’: see comminuent.