Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An opening, especially to a cavity or passage of the body; a mouth or vent.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An opening; a mouth or aperture, as of a tube, pipe, or other similar object; a perforation; a vent.
- noun See the adjectives.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A mouth or aperture, as of a tube, pipe, etc.; an opening
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
mouth oraperture , as of a tube, pipe, etc.; anopening ; as,
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an aperture or hole that opens into a bodily cavity
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Whenever I say the word orifice, I feel like a mix between a 13 yo boy and Beavis and Butthead - Say it with me - She said orifice, huh huh, orifice; yeah, orifice.
Gross Words - Part II Karyn 2006
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If Mitch McConnell ever stopped short James Inhofes head would disappear into a certain orifice.
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If Mitch McConnell ever stopped short James Inhofes head would disappear into a certain orifice.
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An irregular section of the wall (nothing was ever square, flat, vertical or exactly smooth around here) disappeared up and back rather like the cover of a rolltop desk, and as if the orifice were a comic mouth thrusting out a broad tongue, a kind of board slid outward.
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The difference in B.t. u. in a pound of steam at the boiler pressure and after passing the orifice is the heat available for evaporating the moisture content and superheating the steam.
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The opening of the external acoustic meatus is exposed by drawing the tragus forward; at the orifice are a few short crisp hairs which serve to prevent the entrance of dust or of small insects; beyond this the secretion of the ceruminous glands serves to catch any small particles which may find their way into the meatus.
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It is a projecting knob, like a bung closing an orifice, which is believed to conceal a cavern where the redoubtable captain placed a few barrels of his wealth.
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Volume 09 : as to buried treasure 1879
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The auricles communicate with the ventricles each by a large aperture, the auriculo-ventricular orifice, which is furnished with a remarkable mechanism of valves, allowing the transmission of blood from the auricles into the ventricles, but preventing a reverse course.
Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Charles B. Michener 1877
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My notes contain memoranda of various galleries crammed with pieces of leaves right up to the orifice, which is on a level with the ground, and entirely devoid of cells, even of an unfinished one.
Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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When the store has been taken in, this accessory orifice, which is used only during the last few moments, is closed with a mouthful of mortar, thrust outward from within.
More Hunting Wasps Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
jboyd commented on the word orifice
Used as a technical term for the opening through which spun yarn passes onto a spinning wheel. See also orifice hook.
November 20, 2010