usually in pl. tonsils. Also 7 -ell. [ad. L. tonsillæ (pl.); cf. F. tonsilles (Paré, 16th c., les tonsilles ou amygdales).]
1. Each of two oval lymphoid glands situated one on each side of the fauces between the anterior and posterior arches.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXIII. Proem 146. Ulcers that happen in moist parts, and namely those of the mouth, Tonsils or Almond-kernels on either side of the throat. Ibid. (1603), Plutarch’s Mor., 1022. The glandulous parts or kernelles called tonsells.
1776. Cruikshank, in Phil. Trans., LXXXV. 183. The tonsils were considerably inflamed.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 238. The tonsil is a collection of mucous follicles, situated between the pillars of the soft palate, above the side of the tongue, and below the velum.
2. Each of the two lobes of the cerebellum; also called amygdala.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
1899. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
3. Abdominal tonsil: a name sometimes applied to the lymphatic tissue of the appendix vermiformis.
4. attrib. and Comb.
1767. Gooch, Treat Wounds, I. 425. The operation [was] easily performed, with an instrument a little more curved than a tonsil-needle, having an eye towards the point.
1898. J. Hutchinson, in Arch. Surg., IX. No. 36. 349. There may also … be a difference in proneness to tonsil affections in different races.
