papillary muscle

noun Anatomy.

one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.

Origin of papillary muscle

First recorded in 1885–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

papillary muscle in Medicine

Any of the group of myocardial bundles that terminate in the tendinous cords that attach to the cusps of the atrioventricular valves.