false rib

noun

Anatomy.

1. any of the lower five ribs on either side of the body, which are not directly attached to the sternum.

Word History and Origins

Origin of false rib¹

First recorded in 1490–1500

Example Sentences

"In the right side, my lord; but, fortunately, towards the lower false rib."

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We have long been derided and scoffed at for making connubialism marketable, and putting a price on a wife's infidelity, but it strikes me this is something worse; for what, after all, is a rib—a false rib, too—compared with the whole bony skeleton?

Read more on Project Gutenberg