a. and sb. Anat. [ad. medical L. coracoīdēs, a. Gr. κορακοειδής (also κορακώδης) raven-like, f. κόραξ raven, crow: see -OID.] A. adj.
1. Beaked like a crow. Applied to a process of bone (coracoid process), extending from the scapula or shoulder-blade toward the sternum or breast-bone, which in adult man somewhat resembles in shape and size the beak of a crow; also to the bone (coracoid bone) homologous with this process, which, in birds and reptiles, extends from the scapula to the sternum, and forms the distal or ventral element of the scapular arch.
[1706. Phillips, Coracoides, a Process of the Shoulder-blade which takes Name from its Figure resembling that of a Crow’s Bill.
1721. in Bailey.]
1741. Monro, Anat. (ed. 3), 245. The Base, Acromion, coracoid Process and Head of the Scapula, are all in a cartilaginous State at the Birth.
1847. Todd, Cycl. Anat., III. 840/1. The coracoid bone … is only fully developed in the Reptilia and in Birds.
1872. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., xii. 476. Another process, the coracoid, which only serves in Man for the attachment of certain muscles.
2. Pertaining to, or connected with, the coracoid process.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 219/1. The humerus … can act upon the scapula … depressing its coracoid angle.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 479. The coracoid insertion of the pectoralis minor can also be seen.
B. sb. = Coracoid process or bone: see A. 1.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 37. The scapula has … a point named the coracoid, for the attachment of certain muscles.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. xlvii. In the Monotremata … the coracoid reaches the sternum.
