Fracture n. 1.The act of breaking or snapping asunder; rupture; breach.
2.(Surg.) The breaking of a bone.
3.(Min.) The texture of a freshly broken surface; as, a compact fracture; an even, hackly, or conchoidal fracture.
Comminuted fracture (Surg.), a fracture in which the bone is broken into several parts.
Complicated fracture (Surg.), a fracture of the bone combined with the lesion of some artery, nervous trunk, or joint.
Compound fracture (Surg.), a fracture in which there is an open wound from the surface down to the fracture.
Simple fracture (Surg.), a fracture in which the bone only is ruptured. It does not communicate with the surface by an open wound.
Synonyms: Fracture, Rupture. These words denote different kinds of breaking, according to the objects to which they are applied. Fracture is applied to hard substances; as, the fracture of a bone. Rupture is oftener applied to soft substances; as, the rupture of a blood vessel. It is also used figuratively. "To be an enemy and once to have been a friend, does it not embitter the rupture?" Compound adj. Composed of two or more elements, ingredients, parts; produced by the union of several ingredients, parts, or things; composite; as, a compound word. "Compound substances are made up of two or more simple substances." Compound addition, Compound subtraction, Compound multiplication, Compound division (Arith.), the addition, subtraction, etc., of compound numbers.
Compound crystal (Crystallog.), a twin crystal, or one seeming to be made up of two or more crystals combined according to regular laws of composition.
Compound engine (Mech.), a form of steam engine in which the steam that has been used in a high-pressure cylinder is made to do further service in a larger low-pressure cylinder, sometimes in several larger cylinders, successively.
Compound ether. (Chem.) See under Ether. Compound flower (Bot.), a flower head resembling a single flower, but really composed of several florets inclosed in a common calyxlike involucre, as the sunflower or dandelion.
Compound fraction. (Math.) See Fraction. Compound fracture. See Fracture. Compound householder, a householder who compounds or arranges with his landlord that his rates shall be included in his rents. (Eng.)
Compound interest. See Interest. Compound larceny. (Law) See Larceny. Compound leaf (Bot.), a leaf having two or more separate blades or leaflets on a common leafstalk.
Compound microscope. See Microscope. Compound motion. See Motion. Compound number (Math.), one constructed according to a varying scale of denomination; as, 3 cwt., 1 qr., 5 lb.; called also denominate number.
Compound pier (Arch.), a clustered column.
Compound quantity (Alg.), a quantity composed of two or more simple quantities or terms, connected by the sign + (plus) or - (minus). Thus, a + b - c, and bb - b, are compound quantities.
Compound radical. (Chem.) See Radical. Compound ratio (Math.), the product of two or more ratios; thus ab:cd is a ratio compounded of the simple ratios a:c and b:d.
Compound rest (Mech.), the tool carriage of an engine lathe.
Compound screw (Mech.), a screw having on the same axis two or more screws with different pitch (a differential screw), or running in different directions (a right and left screw).
Compound time (Mus.), that in which two or more simple measures are combined in one; as, 6-8 time is the joining of two measures of 3-8 time.
Compound word, a word composed of two or more words; specifically, two or more words joined together by a hyphen.
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