Definitions

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

  • adjective Shaped like a top.
  • adjective Spinning like a top.
  • adjective Zoology Spiral and decreasing sharply in diameter from base to apex. Used especially of shells.
  • adjective Anatomy Of, relating to, or designating a small curved bone that extends horizontally along the lateral wall of the nasal passage in mammals and birds.
  • noun Anatomy A turbinate bone.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Shaped like a whipping-top.
  • In anatomy, whorled or scroll-like in shape; turbinal; spongy in texture, or full of cavities: applied to certain bones and parts of bones in the nasal fossæ.
  • Whirling in the manner of a top.
  • noun A turbinate body.
  • To fashion like a top.
  • To revolve like a top; spin; whirl.

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

  • adjective Whirling in the manner of a top.
  • adjective (Bot.) Shaped like a top, or inverted cone; narrow at the base, and broad at the apex.
  • adjective (Anat.) Turbinal.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Spiral with the whorls decreasing rapidly from a large base to a pointed apex; -- said of certain shells.
  • intransitive verb rare To revolve or spin like a top; to whirl.

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

  • adjective Shaped or spinning like a top.
  • adjective In the shape of a coil.
  • adjective zoology Spiral and decreasing sharply in diameter from base to apex. Used especially of shells.
  • adjective anatomy Of, or relating to, the turbinate bone.
  • noun anatomy A turbinal or turbinate bone.

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

  • noun any of the scrolled spongy bones of the nasal passages in man and other vertebrates
  • adjective in the shape of a coil
  • adjective of or relating to the scroll-shaped turbinate bones in the nasal passages

Etymologies

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

[Latin turbinātus, from turbō, turbin-, spinning top; see turbine.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin turbinatus.

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Examples

  • But some North Texans are finding instant relief in a quick, relatively inexpensive office procedure called turbinate coblation.

    NBC Dallas-Fort Worth - Top Stories 2009

  • For here the two extremities are brought together by a curve, as if one were to bend the straight line marked E until D came close to Such, then, is the disposition of the internal parts; and round these, in the Cephalopoda, is placed the sac (in the Poulps alone called a head), and, in the Testacea, the turbinate shell which corresponds to the sac.

    On the Parts of Animals 2002

  • The human gnawed on a stratified pulpy compaction called a sandwich, while Pilwondepat chewed jheru - flavored food pellets and sipped from his turbinate juice bottle.

    Diuturnity's Dawn Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

  • Twikanrozex sucked the last liquid from the bottom of his nearly empty turbinate.

    Diuturnity's Dawn Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

  • Twikanrozex sucked the last liquid from the bottom of his nearly empty turbinate.

    Diuturnity's Dawn Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

  • Those with turbinate shells may, indeed, after a certain fashion be said to resemble bivalves.

    On the Parts of Animals 2002

  • For there are those with turbinate shells, of which some have just been mentioned; and, besides these, there are bivalves and univalves.

    On the Parts of Animals 2002

  • Purpuras and Whelks, and all other Testacea that have turbinate shells, in structure resemble the Sea-snail.

    On the Parts of Animals 2002

  • This shell, as already has been said, may have one valve, or two valves, or be turbinate.

    On the Parts of Animals 2002

  • The human gnawed on a stratified pulpy compaction called a sandwich, while Pilwondepat chewed jheru - flavored food pellets and sipped from his turbinate juice bottle.

    Diuturnity's Dawn Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

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