Harvey
[ hahr-vee ]
/ ˈhɑr vi /
Save This Word!
noun
William, 1578–1657, English physician: discoverer of the circulation of the blood.
a city in NE Illinois, near Chicago.
a male given name: from Germanic words meaning “army” and “battle.”
QUIZZES
THINK YOU’VE GOT A HANDLE ON THIS US STATE NICKNAME QUIZ?
Did you ever collect all those state quarters? Put them to good use on this quiz about curious state monikers and the facts around them.
Question 1 of 8
Mississippi’s nickname comes from the magnificent trees that grow there. What is it?
Words nearby Harvey
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for Harvey
British Dictionary definitions for Harvey
Harvey
/ (ˈhɑːvɪ) /
noun
William. 1578–1657, English physician who discovered the mechanism of blood circulation, expounded in On the motion of the heart (1628)
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
Medical definitions for Harvey
Harvey
[ här′vē ]
English physician, anatomist, and physiologist who discovered the circulation of blood in the human body (1628).
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Scientific definitions for Harvey
Harvey
[ här′vē ]
English physician and physiologist who in 1628 demonstrated the function of the heart and the circulation of blood throughout the human body.
Biography
In the second century ce, the Greek physician Galen theorized that blood is created in the liver, passes once through the heart, and is then absorbed by bodily tissues. Galen's ideas were widely accepted in European medicine until 1628, when William Harvey published a book describing the circulation of blood throughout the body. Through his observations of human and animal dissections, Harvey saw that blood flows from one side of the heart to the other and that it flows through the lungs and returns to the heart to be pumped elsewhere. There was one missing part of the cycle: How did the blood pumped to distant body tissues get into the veins to be carried back to the heart? As an answer, Harvey offered his own, unproven theory, one that has since been shown to be true: blood passes from small, outlying arteries through tiny vessels called capillaries into the outlying veins. Harvey's views were so controversial at the time that many of his patients left his care, but his work became the basis for all modern research on the heart and blood vessels.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.