patulous
Americanadjective
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open; gaping; expanded.
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Botany.
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spreading, as a tree or its boughs.
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spreading slightly, as a calyx.
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bearing the flowers loose or dispersed, as a peduncle.
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adjective
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botany spreading widely or expanded
patulous branches
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rare gaping
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of patulous
First recorded in 1610–20, patulous is from the Latin word patulus standing wide-open. See patent, -ulous
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
No less a poet than P. Robinson, in no less famous a poem than "Under the Sun," wrote, "The patulous teak, with its great leathern leaves."
From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by Vincent, J. E. (James Edmund)
In seven months the abdomen presented the signs of pregnancy, but the cervix was soft and patulous; the sound entered three inches and was followed by some hemorrhage.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)
In a marked hemorrhage the only way to save the mother is to empty the uterus, so that it may contract and thus close the patulous vessels.
From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by ?Malley, Austin
It is all a matter of "plumbing" i.e., clearing out the "pipes," and maintaining a patulous airway.
From Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery by Jackson, Chevalier
Yet, by reason of the patulous elms, he had seen nothing of them.
From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by Vincent, J. E. (James Edmund)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
