Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun plural The passage from the back of the mouth to the pharynx, bounded by the soft palate, the base of the tongue, and the palatine arches.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In ancient Roman building, a passage in a house, especially that leading from the first vestibule to the atrium or first court. It is disputed whether the term is ever used for inner passages.
- The throat or gullet.
- In anatomy, specifically, the back part of the mouth, leading into the pharynx; the passage from the buccal cavity proper to the cavity of the pharynx, overhung by the soft palate, and bounded on each side by the pillars of the soft palate. [The word has no singular, and is used chiefly in the two phrases given below.]
- In conchology, that part of the cavity of the first chamber of a shell which may be seen by looking in at the aperture.
- In botany, the opening or throat of the tube of a gamopetalous corolla.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun plural (Anat.) The narrow passage from the mouth to the pharynx, situated between the soft palate and the base of the tongue; -- called also the
isthmus of the fauces . On either side of the passage two membranous folds, called thepillars of the fauces , inclose the tonsils. - noun plural (Bot.) The throat of a calyx, corolla, etc.
- noun plural (Zoöl.) That portion of the interior of a spiral shell which can be seen by looking into the aperture.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the passage between the back of the mouth and the pharynx
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Through the lowering of the pillars of the fauces, which is the same as raising the soft palate, the outflowing breath is divided into two parts.
How to Sing [Meine Gesangskunst] Lilli Lehmann 1888
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With each moment the atrium was filled more and more; in corridors, called "fauces," voices were heard calling in various languages.
Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero Henryk Sienkiewicz 1881
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1 HAVE feen inftances of peiibns bitten by fuakes, who have been fb long without af - lidance, that when they have been brought to me, they have not been able to fwallow, from Convulfions of the throat and fauces, which is,
Dissertations and Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the History and Antiquities, the Arts ... William Jones, William Chambers, Warren Hastings 1792
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About the twenty-first, weight generally in the left side, with pain; slight urine thick, muddy, and reddish; when allowed to stand, had no sediment; in other respects felt lighter; fever not gone; fauces painful from the commencement, and red; uvula retracted; defluxion remained acrid, pungent, and saltish throughout.
Of The Epidemics 2007
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The fauces were not very irritable, nor were they troubled with any saltish humors; but there were viscid, white, liquid, frothy, and copious defluxions from the head.
Of The Epidemics 2007
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Those quinsies are most dangerous, and most quickly prove fatal, which make no appearance in the fauces, nor in the neck, but occasion very great pain and difficulty of breathing; these induce suffocation on the first day, or on the second, the third, or the fourth.
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If a person laboring under a fever, without any swelling in the fauces, be seized with a sense of suffocation suddenly, it is a mortal symptom.
Aphorisms 2007
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In certain cases there was much disorder, and tumors about the fauces, and inflammations of the tongue, and abscesses about the teeth.
Of The Epidemics 2007
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In a person affected with fever, when there is no swelling in the fauces, should suffocation suddenly come on, and the patient not be able to swallow, except with difficulty, it is a mortal symptom.
Aphorisms 2007
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[3711] Num tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris
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