[ad. L. turbināt-us, f. turbo, turbin-: see TURBO and -ATE2.]
A. adj. Nat. Hist. Resembling a spinning-top in shape; of a mollusk, having a spiral shell; in Bot. spec. inversely conical; having a narrow tapering base and broad rounded apex; in Anat. applied to the scroll-like spongy bones of the nasal fossæ in the higher vertebrates.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Fishes, which are … testaceous, and … turbinate, which are either involute, as the Nautilus,… murex,… or orbicular, as the Welke.
a. 1706. Evelyn, Sylva (1776), II. i. § 1. [The larch tribe] Easily raised of the kernels and nuts, which may be gotten out of their polysperm and turbinate cones.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbadoes, 283. The largest, as well as the most beautiful of the turbinate kind.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., III. xxii. (1765), 229. The Pericarpium is … turbinate, Top-shaped, when it tapers towards the Base.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 24. C[onus] Hebræus, Lin. Shell turbinate, coronate, white … the spire convex, obtuse.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 244. Three convoluted portions of bone named spongy or turbinate bones, which project into the cavity.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 366. Leucojum æstivum … Fruit turbinate.
b. In combination, modifying another adj., as turbinate-lentiform, -truncate.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 355. Tympanis Fraxini,… cups subsessile, turbinate-truncate, shining, black.
B. sb. a. A turbinate shell. b. A turbinate bone.
1802–3. trans. Pallas’ Trav. (1812), I. 70. A multitude of turbinates of the large kind, and especially whole strata, full of small striped turbinates.
1872. Mivart, Elem. Anat., 84. That part of it immediately below the cribriform plate is called the upper spongy bone, or superior turbinate, or turbinal.
1903. Detroit Med. Jrnl., 733 (Cent. D. Suppl.). Cases of asthma treated by removal of the middle turbinate.
