See Also: fissure(dictionary)
ape fissure(medicine)
fissure bur(medicine)
Fissure(medicine)
fissure(dictionary)
Fissure(health)
fissure in ano(medicine)
portal fissure(medicine)
postcentral fissure(medicine)
posterolateral fissure(medicine)

fissure (iou)



fissure noun & verb. LME.
[Old & mod. French, or Latin fissura, from fiss-: see FISSILE, -URE.]
A. noun.
An opening, usu. long and narrow, made by cracking, splitting, or separation of parts. Orig. esp. in Medicine, a linear wound or ulceration; now chiefly, a long cleft in rock or ice. LME.
E. Heath The Rift Valley, that great fissure in the earth which extends for a thousand miles. fig.: E. Gellner Not any genetically transmitted trait will have the effect of producing a fissure in society.
Heraldry. A diminutive of the bend sinister. L15.
The action of fissuring; the state of being fissured; sharp division. M17.
R. D. Laing The fissure into self and ego, inner and outer, good and bad occurs.
Comb.: fissure eruption Geology a steady emission of lava along a fissure in the earth's crust; fissure vein Mineralogy a fissure in the earth's crust filled with valuable mineral.
b. verb.
verb trans. Make a fissure or fissures in; split. M17.
verb intrans. Develop a fissure or fissures; crack. M19.
fissured adjective having a fissure or fissures; broken up by fissures: L18.