a. [ad. L. ālār-is, f. āla a wing: see -AR.]

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  1.  Of or pertaining to a wing or wings.

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1847.  in Craig.

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1860.  Emerson, Cond. Life, 171. The bone or the quill of the bird gives the most alar strength, with the least weight.

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1874.  Coues, Birds of N.-W., 544. Audubon mentions one nearly ten feet in alar expanse.

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  2.  Winglike or wing-shaped.

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1839–47.  Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 829/2. The alar bones … are in reality distinct elements of the cranium.

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1845.  Todd & Bowman, Phys. Anat., I. 127. The knee affords some remarkable examples of these folds, in what are known as the alar ligaments.

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  3.  Bot. and Phys. Belonging to the axil or axilla, axillary.

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1858.  Gray, Bot. Text-bk., 395. Alar. From ala in the sense of axilla, therefore axillary or in the forks.

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1879.  Syd. Soc. Lex., Alar vein, a vein which, after collecting blood from the axilla, joins the axillary vein.

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