Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The bone of the breast; the sternum.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The bone of the breast; the sternum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The central narrow bone in the front of the chest, connecting the collar-bone and the top ribs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the flat bone that articulates with the clavicles and the first seven pairs of ribs

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Moreover, its breastbone is too small to support the huge pectoral muscles a bird this size would need to fly.

    Dodos at AMNH 2006

  • The joint where the wing connects to the breastbone is another good place to check the temperature.

    Daisy’s Holiday Cooking Daisy Martinez 2010

  • The woman held her palms up and smiled and the man had his arms out to her, his hands like hooks, and protruding point-outward from his breastbone was a crooked knife blade with a wetness on it.

    More Than Human Sturgeon, Theodore, 1918-1985 1953

  • Both he and I have Ehlers-Danlos traits, the breastbone was the most severe of his visible traits whereas I just bend and disjoint in really Frosted up ways.

    ZUG.com > ZUG Live Whistler P. McManus 2010

  • This is largely due to the tump-line, which is laid over the head, while persons unused to it must have shoulder-straps in addition, which are not as good, because the "breastbone," so called, is not strong enough.

    Crooked Trails Frederic Remington 1885

  • He moved back toward the door, leaving me there, absently rubbing a hand over my aching breastbone.

    How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf Molly Harper 2011

  • Fatigue suddenly made her legs wobbly as the warmth that covered her scalp slowly spilled down her arms and along her back and breastbone, flowing down her limbs until the tips of her fingers and toes tingled.

    Surrender the Dark L. A. Banks 2011

  • After she felt a sweat drop rolling from her chin to her breastbone she decided to take a cold shower.

    365 tomorrows » 2009 » September : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009

  • Vittorio suddenly felt a distant thump in his own chest: his implant telling him that Sarsen had just been hit hard above the breastbone.

    World Wide Mind Michael chorost 2011

  • I know about the effusion that had built up in the sack her heart rests in, and I had pulled the drain from the hole just to the left of her breastbone when the liquid had been taken off.

    Between Expectations Md Meghan Maclean Weir 2011

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