[ad. L. clāvicula (in 16th c. F. clavicule) small key, tendril, bar or bolt of a door, dim. of clāvis key: in med.L. ‘collar-bone,’ according to Littré ‘because it was compared to the key of a vault, or, as others think, because its form is that of the ancient bolts.’]
1. Anat. The collar-bone, which extends from the breast-bone to the shoulder-blade, forming part of the pectoral arch. In birds the two clavicles are united at their lower extremities into one bone, the furculum or ‘merry-thought.’
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 392. These Clauicles on either side fasten the shoulder blade to the brast-bone. Ibid., 901. These nerues run vnder the clauicle or cannell bone.
1685. Cooke, Marrow Chirurg. (ed. 4), I. i. 8.
1854. Hooker, Himal. Jrnls., I. iv. 99. To ease their aching clavicles.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., The clavicle is absent, among Mammals, in Ungulata and Cetacea, and in many Carnivora and Rodentia.
† 2. Bot. A tendril, clasper, cirrus. Obs.
1725. Sloane, Jamaica, II. 158. It climbs … like Ivy, with broad and soft Clavicles.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbadoes, App. 316. Clavicles, Claspers, or Tendrils, are the young Shoots of creeping scandent Plants.
† 3. Conch. The upper part of a spiral shell. Obs.
[1755. Gentl. Mag., 31/2. Clavicule, the pyramidal interior and exterior part of a twisted, or spiral shell, beginning near the middle, and ending near the summit. This part if sometimes called the head.]
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1860), II. IV. iv. 358/1. They [fresh-water shells] want … solidity…; their clavicle, as it is called, is neither so prominent nor so strong.
