artery
[ahr-tuh-ree]
- Anatomy. a blood vessel that conveys blood from the heart to any part of the body.
- a main channel or highway, especially of a connected system with many branches.
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Origin of artery
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for artery
Contemporary Examples
The horn, or broken rib, had hit an artery, and within a few minutes, or seconds, he was dead.
Now surgeons will have an hour to fix the artery, return blood, and revive you.
New 'Suspended Animation' Procedure Saves Lives by Replacing Blood with a Cold Electrolyte SolutionElizabeth Lopatto
April 2, 2014
The equivalent of that nerve— the most direct route to its end organ—is to go south of the equivalent of the artery.
So the most direct route from the brain to the larynx was now not south of that artery.
At a certain point, this artery suddenly allows side-of-the-road parking.
Historical Examples
Lieutenant Ford was wounded and a branch of an artery was cut.
The Story of the Malakand Field ForceSir Winston S. Churchill
It went, the doctor said, within a hair's-breadth of the artery.
A Day's RideCharles James Lever
Every nerve and siny of a nerve was there,—not a vein nor an artery wanting.
The Fortunes Of GlencoreCharles James Lever
I think the artery was cut while the heart was still beating.
If the blood is bright and comes out in spurts, it's an artery.
The Big BrotherGeorge Cary Eggleston
artery
- any of the tubular thick-walled muscular vessels that convey oxygenated blood from the heart to various parts of the bodyCompare pulmonary artery, vein
- a major road or means of communication in any complex system
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin artēria, related to Greek aortē the great artery, aorta
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for artery
n.
late 14c., from Anglo-French arterie, Old French artaire (13c.; Modern French artère), and directly from Latin arteria, from Greek arteria "windpipe," also "an artery," as distinct from a vein; related to aeirein "to raise" (see aorta).
They were regarded by the ancients as air ducts because the arteries do not contain blood after death; medieval writers took them for the channels of the "vital spirits," and 16c. senses of artery in English include "trachea, windpipe." The word is used in reference to artery-like systems of major rivers from 1805; of railways from 1850.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
artery
(är′tə-rē)- Any of a branching system of muscular, elastic blood vessels that, except for the pulmonary and umbilical arteries, carry aerated blood away from the heart to the cells, tissues, and organs of the body.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
artery
[är′tə-rē]
- Any of the blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body's cells, tissues, and organs. Arteries are flexible, elastic tubes with muscular walls that expand and contract to pump blood through the body.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.