[f. VERTEBRA.]

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  1.  Vertebral formation; division into segments like those of the spinal column. Also in fig. context.

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1888.  Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 179/2. Some writers have maintained that the vertebration of the Vertebrata may be understood as having reference to the segmentation of the muscles of the body-wall.

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1889.  Theol. Monthly, Jan., 48. His style rather resembles a cellular tissue … which may advance by growth on many sides, rather than a … compact logical vertebration.

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  2.  fig. ‘Backbone’; strength or firmness.

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1884.  W. G. Wills, in Pall Mall G., 28 July, 4/2. Poetry and rhetoric,… which have not the heart, life, and vertebration behind, are an impertinence and intrusion.

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1892.  W. S. Lilly, Gt. Enigma, 313. Doctrine is the vertebration of religion.

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