greenstick fracture

[ green-stik ]

/ ˈgrinˌstɪk /

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noun

an incomplete fracture of a long bone, in which one side is broken and the other side is still intact.

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Origin of greenstick fracture

First recorded in 1880–85; green + stick¹

Words nearby greenstick fracture

green soap, greensome, Greenspan, Green Stamp, Green's theorem, greenstick fracture, greenstone, green strength, greenstrip, green stuff, green sulfur bacteria

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use greenstick fracture in a sentence

"My wife and I have been married for nineteen years," says Palmer, mulling the stress-fracture in his family life.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up|Tom Boswell|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Facebook has—to fracture an old phrase—just closed the barn door after a billion cows already departed the premises.
You Can’t Have Facebook’s Best Privacy Policy|Dennis Kneale|May 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And the truth is, I got way more opportunities out of Half Nelson than I did out of Fracture.
Rob Lowe: Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful|Tricia Romano|April 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Ms. Kuang suffered multiple injuries, including a skull fracture, and two and a half months later she still has trouble walking.
Uber and Its Enemies|Jim Epstein|February 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST

And contemporaneous observers predicted that South Africa would fracture, that a civil war would roil for the next decade.
Nelson Mandela Was Undeniably Great But He Doesn’t Need a Halo|Michael Moynihan|December 6, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Very compact and fine-grained reddish granular quartz, with a glistening lustre, and flat conchoidal fracture.
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2]|Phillip Parker King
When the sound is over, he may not be able to see a trace of the fracture, which at first is very narrow.
Outlines of the Earth's History|Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
The parts barely touched each other, though in cases of human fracture the bones sometimes get drawn past.
The Red Cow and Her Friends|Peter McArthur
It was no comminuted fracture I had to deal with, but a very simple case of simple fracture.
The Red Cow and Her Friends|Peter McArthur
One of the projections of the Little Douvre had made a fracture in the starboard side of the hull.
Toilers of the Sea|Victor Hugo

British Dictionary definitions for greenstick fracture

greenstick fracture

/ (ˈɡriːnˌstɪk) /

noun

a fracture in children in which the bone is partly bent and splinters only on the convex side of the bend

Word Origin for greenstick fracture

C20: alluding to the similar way in which a green stick splinters

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