MAXILLA • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Maxilla

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noun

Maxilla n. (pl. maxillae)

(Anat.)

(a)

The bone of either the upper or the under jaw.

(b)

The bone, or principal bone, of the upper jaw, the bone of the lower jaw being the mandible. (Now commonly used in this restricted sense.)

(Zool.) One of the lower or outer jaws of arthropods. Note: There are usually two pairs in Crustacea and one pair in insects. In certain insects they are not used as jaws, but may form suctorial organs.

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Etymology of 'Maxilla'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Maxilla" Quotes from Famous Books

... the first time since Celsus, after an interval of fifteen centuries, a ligature to an artery, nor Dupuytren, about to open an abscess in the brain, nor Gensoul when he first took away the superior maxilla, had hearts that trembled, hands that shook, minds so strained as Monsieur Bovary when he approached Hippolyte, his tenotome between his fingers. And as at hospitals, near by on a table lay a heap of lint, ...

— Madame Bovary • Gustave Flaubert

Words linked to "Maxilla" : upper jawbone, maxillary, upper jaw, jaw, sutura intermaxillaris, intermaxillary suture, hard palate