MAXILLA • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Maxilla

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/mæksˈɪlə/ Listen

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

... caput crassius, minus altum, declive. Os parvum. Maxilla inferior porifera, ore clauso ascendens, hinc, ore hiante, ultra maxillam ...

— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes

... 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

... entirely separated from the lateral portions. The central portion or prolabium is usually smaller than normal, and is closely adherent to the os incisivum. This bone may retain its normal position in line with the alveolar processes of the maxilla (Fig. 234), or it may be tilted forward so that the incisor teeth, when present, project beyond the level of the prolabium (Fig. 235). In aggravated cases, the os incisivum and prolabium are adherent to the end of the nose. In these cases there ...

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

... Inferior maxilla (lower jaw). 2. Superior maxilla (upper jaw). 3. Anterior maxilla 4. Nasal bone. 5. ...

— Delineations of the Ox Tribe • George Vasey