[L. culmen, contr. f. columen top, summit, roof-ridge, etc.]
† 1. gen. The top or summit; fig. the height, acme, culminating point. Obs.
1647. Crashaw, Poems, 129. Chronology and history bear No other culmen than the double art Astronomy, geography impart.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 227. At the culmen or top was a Chappel.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. iii. § 40 (1740), 145. The Culmen of this Historian’s Art and Invention.
1856. Dobell, Eng. in Time of War. That top and culmen exquisite Whereto the slanting seasons meet.
2. Ornith. The upper ridge of a bird’s bill.
1833. R. Mudie, Brit. Birds (1841), II. 34. Their bills being more curved in the culmen.
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 45. The bill … slender … with the culmen concave near the base.
3. Anat. ‘The superior vermiform process of the cerebellum’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1882).
