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Fracture   /frˈæktʃər/  /frˈækʃər/   Listen
noun
Fracture  n.  
1.
The act of breaking or snapping asunder; rupture; breach.
2.
(Surg.) The breaking of a bone.
3.
(Min.) The texture of a freshly broken surface; as, a compact fracture; an even, hackly, or conchoidal fracture.
Comminuted fracture (Surg.), a fracture in which the bone is broken into several parts.
Complicated fracture (Surg.), a fracture of the bone combined with the lesion of some artery, nervous trunk, or joint.
Compound fracture (Surg.), a fracture in which there is an open wound from the surface down to the fracture.
Simple fracture (Surg.), a fracture in which the bone only is ruptured. It does not communicate with the surface by an open wound.
Synonyms: Fracture, Rupture. These words denote different kinds of breaking, according to the objects to which they are applied. Fracture is applied to hard substances; as, the fracture of a bone. Rupture is oftener applied to soft substances; as, the rupture of a blood vessel. It is also used figuratively. "To be an enemy and once to have been a friend, does it not embitter the rupture?"



verb
Fracture  v. t.  (past & past part. fractured; pres. part. fracturing)  To cause a fracture or fractures in; to break; to burst asunder; to crack; to separate the continuous parts of; as, to fracture a bone; to fracture the skull.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fracture" Quotes from Famous Books



... profusion of vitality is even shocking: the rock under foot is mined with it. I have broken off—notably in Funafuti and Arorai—great lumps of ancient weathered rock that rang under my blows like iron, and the fracture has been full of pendent worms as long as my hand, as thick as a child's finger, of a slightly pinkish white, and set as close as three or even four to the square inch. Even in the lagoon, where certain shell-fish seem to ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... and as she merely inclined her head, he hastened to explain: "Giovanni, it seems, slipped this morning and broke his arm. But, though the fracture is a very serious one, he ...
— The Title Market • Emily Post

... surgeon, with the thoughtful pleasure of an artist contemplating the work upon his easel. 'Yes, it's enough. There's a compound fracture above the knee, and a dislocation below. They are both of a beautiful kind.' He gave the patient a friendly clap on the shoulder again, as if he really felt that he was a very good fellow indeed, and worthy of all commendation for having broken his ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... man's case the keen axe is just used in time to cut the line as it smokes over the gunwale before the coil tears his leg off; in another's case the awful pull of the rope fractured the arm lengthways and not by a cross fracture, and the bone never united after the most ...
— Heroes of the Goodwin Sands • Thomas Stanley Treanor

... The claws of the Felidae are extremely strong, sharp, and crooked; and all four-feet are furnished with them, five before, and four behind; and the most effective system of muscular contrivance not only gives such force to the fore-paws, that a blow from one of these will fracture a man's skull, but keeps these claws from touching the ground, and enables the animal to draw them back into a sheath. In aid of this, the sole of the foot, and each of the toes, has a soft, elastic pad, or cushion under it, on which they walk, and as they never set the heel to the ground, ...
— Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals • R. Lee


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