a. [ad. mod.L. ventricōsus, f. L. ventr-, venter belly VENTER1: see -IC and -OSE.]
1. Swelling out in the middle, or on one side, after the manner of an animal’s belly; bellied, protuberant, strongly convex.
a. Bot. (esp. of the corolla or calyx).
1756. J. Hill, Hist. Plants, 153 (Jod.). There is no pericarpium; but the calix becomes more ventricose, and contains a single seed.
1785. Martyn, Lett. Bot., xvi. (1794), 179. In Comfrey and Cerinthe the corolla is ventricose.
1821. W. P. C. Barton, Flora N. Amer., I. 13. Capsule setigerous…, included in the ventricose calix.
1841. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 243. The flowers are white and ventricose.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., App. 310. Outer Glumes [of wheat] nearly equal,… ventricose.
b. Conch. (Usually of the body of the shell.)
1770. Pennant, Brit. Zool., IV. 123. M[urex] carinatus with five or six spires, the body ventricose.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 79. Shell rounded, ventricose, golden red.
1851. S. P. Woodward, Mollusca, I. 70. Cranchia. Body large, ventricose. Ibid., 110. Whirls ventricose.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea, 155. Their ventricose or parallel-sided form.
Comb. 1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 25. Shell oblong, ventricose-cylindrical.
c. Zool. or Anat.
1804. Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. II. 394. Ventricose Sucker. … Olivaceous Sucker, with ventricose abdomen.
1813. Montagu, Ornith. Dict., Suppl. s.v. Golden-eye, The ventricose part consists of the same cartilaginous rings as the rest of the windpipe.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 533. The ventricose and short-bodied species of Cephalopoda.
1841. E. Newman, Hist. Insects, III. iii. 185. The gullet … is ventricose or ventricosus when it dilates into a large bag or crop before its union with the stomach.
2. Of persons: Big-bellied; having an unusually or abnormally large abdomen.
1843. F. E. Paget, Warden Berkingholt, 266. The Reverend Rory O’Flannigan rose like the full moon … when first she peeps from behind the hill, rubicund, coppery, ventricose.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxv. 248. Ending with the ventricose little Accommodah.
1876. W. Roberts, Urin. & Renal Dis., III. viii. (ed. 3), 485. A little boy, who had been ventricose from birth.
Hence Ventricoseness, Ventricosity.
1857. Turton, Land & Fresh-W. Shells, 183. [The shell] varies greatly in size, ventricoseness, and colour.
1868. Proc. Zool. Soc., May, 374. The greater ventricosity of form … of M[elo] georginæ.
1909. J. W. Jenkinson, Exper. Embryol., 71. The ‘ventricosity’ (ratio of breadth to lengih) of the shell of the Periwinkle.
