Definitions

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

  • noun The act of bending a joint or limb in the body by the action of flexors.
  • noun The resulting condition of being bent.
  • noun A part that is bent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • etc. See flection, etc.

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

  • noun The act of flexing or bending; a turning.
  • noun A bending; a part bent; a fold.
  • noun (Gram.) Syntactical change of form of words, as by declension or conjugation; inflection.
  • noun (Physiol.) The bending of a limb or joint; that motion of a joint which gives the distal member a continually decreasing angle with the axis of the proximal part; -- distinguished from extension.

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

  • noun The act of bending a joint, especially a bone joint. The counteraction of extension.
  • noun Alternative spelling of flection.

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

  • noun the state of being flexed (as of a joint)
  • noun act of bending a joint; especially a joint between the bones of a limb so that the angle between them is decreased
  • noun deviation from a straight or normal course

Etymologies

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

[Latin flexiō, flexiōn-, a bending, from flexus, past participle of flectere, to bend.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin flexiō.

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Examples

  • _flexion_ is usually so pronounced that it can no longer be concealed by lordosis, so that when the patient is recumbent, although the spine is arched forwards, the limb is still flexed both at the hip and at the knee; with the spine flat on the table, the flexion of the thigh may amount to as much as a right angle.

    Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. Alexander Miles 1893

  • Muscle forces therefore must increase as the limbs become more flexed, and we show how this flexion translates to greater volumes of muscle recruited for locomotion and hence metabolic cost.

    tingilinde: 2010

  • Muscle forces therefore must increase as the limbs become more flexed, and we show how this flexion translates to greater volumes of muscle recruited for locomotion and hence metabolic cost.

    motion capture elephants 2010

  • Back in the mid-1980s, for example, knee replacement surgery was considered a success if the patient wound up with 90 degrees of flexion, which is "nothing near normal," he says.

    Latest News 2010

  • Back in the mid-1980s, for example, knee replacement surgery was considered a success if the patient wound up with 90 degrees of flexion, which is "nothing near normal," he says.

    Latest News 2010

  • Supports word flexion for 32 languages with high quality of lemmatization.

    SharePoint Blogs / SharePoint University 2009

  • Another reason for this kind of flexion is the number of their legs; arranged in this way they would interfere less with one another in progression and not knock together.

    On the Gait of Animals 2002

  • Another reason for this kind of flexion is the number of their legs; arranged in this way they would interfere less with one another in progression and not knock together.

    On the Gait of Animals 2002

  • As soon as improvement is visible, begin with certain passive movements, such as flexion and extension of the extremities, separating and closing of the knees, bending of the head, depression and elevation of the arms.

    Massage and the Original Swedish Movements 1918

  • Teachable moment about proper full hip extension and hip flexion.

    Well, I suppose it's a skill he'll eventually need Tyler 2009

Comments

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  • Nor does this--its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful flexion of its motions ...

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 86

    July 26, 2008