Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The joint between the human hand and forearm.
  • noun A similar joint in other vertebrates.
  • noun The part of a sleeve or glove that encircles the wrist.
  • transitive verb To shoot (a puck) by making a wrist shot.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That part of the fore limb or arm which comes between the forearm and the hand, and by which the latter is joined or jointed to the former; the wrist-joint; technically, the carpus, or the carpal articulation.
  • noun The ankle or the instep.
  • noun In machinery, a stud or pin projecting from the side of a crank, wheel, or other moving part, and forming a means of attachment to a connecting-rod leading to some other part of the mechanism. Also called wrist-pin.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) The joint, or the region of the joint, between the hand and the arm; the carpus. See Carpus.
  • noun (Mach.) A stud or pin which forms a journal; -- also called wrist pin.
  • noun the wrist of the left hand, in which a horseman holds the bridle.
  • noun (Med.) A series of quickly alternating movements of flexion and extension of the wrist, produced in some cases of nervous disease by suddenly bending the hand back upon the forearm.
  • noun (Med.) paralysis of the extensor muscles of the hand, affecting the hand so that when an attempt is made to hold it out in line with the forearm with the palm down, the hand drops. It is chiefly due to plumbism. Called also hand drop.
  • noun (Steam Engine) a swinging plate bearing two or more wrists, for operating the valves.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anatomy The complex joint between forearm bones, carpus, and metacarpals where the hand is attached to the arm; the carpus in narrow sense.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a joint between the distal end of the radius and the proximal row of carpal bones

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English wrist, from Proto-Germanic *wristiz (compare Low German Wrist, German Rist 'back of hand, instep, withers', Swedish vrist), from *wrīþanan 'to twist, turn'. More at writhe.

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  • Muñeca (de la mano) // WordReference

    October 19, 2007