stylet
Americannoun
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a stiletto or dagger.
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any similar sharp-pointed instrument.
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Medicine/Medical.
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a probe.
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a wire run through the length of a catheter, cannula, or needle to make it rigid or to clear it.
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noun
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surgery
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a wire for insertion into a flexible cannula or catheter to maintain its rigidity or patency during passage
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a slender probe
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zoology any small pointed bristle-like part
Etymology
Origin of stylet
1690–1700; < French < Middle French stilet < Italian stiletto stiletto; -y- < Latin stylus. See style, stylus
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.
Similar to a hypodermic needle, a nematode uses its stylet to pierce cells and pull out food -- in this case from the pseudoscorpion's hypodermis, part of the outer covering known as the integument.
From Science Daily • Jun. 6, 2024
The plastic receiver, referred to as the white stylet in court documents, could be cut to size by doctors.
From Washington Times • Mar. 10, 2023
Mosquitoes then pierce this plastic with their needlelike proboscis called a stylet.
From Washington Post • Aug. 21, 2020
These tardigrades feed on plants and small animals like rotifers, nematodes or even other tardigrades by piercing them with a needle-like stylet and and drinking the contents.
From Scientific American • Sep. 16, 2013
Leaves opposite, twice abruptly pinnate, a stylet replacing the terminal leaflet; 5 pairs of elliptical leaflets, entire, glabrous and notched at the apex.
From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Thomas, Jerome Beers
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.
