Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A girdlelike marking or structure, such as a band or ridge, on an animal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, same as collar, 2 .
  • noun The zone of a diatom frustule where the two halves are joined.
  • noun [ML., ⟩ Sp. cíngulo = Pg. cingulo = It. cingolo.] Eccles., the girdle with which the alb of a priest is gathered in at the waist.
  • noun In anatomy and zoology: A girdle, belt, or zone; also, the waist; some part constricted as if girdled.
  • noun One of the zones of the carapace of an armadillo.
  • noun A longitudinal bundle of white fibers in the gyrus fornicatus, arising from below the genu of the corpus callosum in front, and extending down behind into the gyrus hippocampi.
  • noun In entomology, a belt-like mark; a transverse band of color.
  • noun In annelids, same as clitellum.
  • noun In pathology, herpes zoster, or shingles.

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

  • noun A distinct girdle or band of color; a raised spiral line as seen on certain univalve shells.
  • noun The clitellus of earthworms.
  • noun The base of the crown of a tooth.

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

  • noun A ridge that girdles the base of an upper molar tooth
  • noun zoology A distinct girdle or band of color; a raised spiral line as seen on certain univalve shells.
  • noun zoology The clitellus of earthworms.

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

  • noun (anatomy) an encircling structure (as the ridge around the base of a tooth)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, girdle, from cingere, to gird; see kenk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin

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Examples

Comments

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  • From A.Word.A.Day:

    "Differs ... in the greater degree of cingular development on cheek teeth, especially molars."

    - Daniel L Gebo, et al; A Hominoid Genus; Science (Washington, DC); Apr 18, 1997.

    January 28, 2008

  • "...still panting like a dog as they wound a cingulum round and round him and turned him on his side to dress the other wounds..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 199

    OED elaborates:

    The Latin word for ‘girdle, belt’ f. root of cingre to gird, occasionally used as a technical term for a. The girdle of a priest's alb. b. A surgical cincture or girdle; also the part of the body round which a girdle is worn, the waist. c. Anat. A band of dental substance surrounding the base of the crown of the tooth in some animals. d. Zool. The transverse series of bony bands in the armour of the armadillo. e. The clitellum or band of higher-coloured rings in the body of earthworms. f. Bot. (See quot. 1845.) g. Anat. A long curved bundle of association fibres lying within the cingulate gyrus of the brain and connecting the paraterminal and parahippocampal gyri.

    February 29, 2008