a. and sb. Also 6 vmbelycall, 8 umbelical, 7 vm-, umbilicall, 8 umbillical. [ad. med.L. umbilīcāl-is, f. umbilīc-us UMBILIC sb. Cf. It. umbilicale, ombelicale, Sp. and Pg. umbilical, F. ombilical (1541), † umbilical (Cotgr.).]
A. adj. 1. Anat. Of or pertaining to the umbilicus or navel.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., H ij. The party vmbelycall synual is fro ye nanyll downwarde.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Umbilical Region, is that part of the Abdomen lying round about the Navel.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Liver, One [fissure] thro’ which the Umbilical Ligament passes.
1808. Barclay, Muscular Motions, 348. A tendon, which … divides in the region called umbilical into two strata.
1846. Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., 434. The umbilical ring … is but slightly resistant and very dilatable for some time after birth.
1859. Bullock, Cazeaux’ Midwif., 128. The umbilical depression, which in the two first months seems deeper, disappears gradually as gestation progresses.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 185. On this account the ventral part of the groove is called the umbilical fissure.
b. In umbilical artery, vein, vessel.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 710. The Infant … draweth the nourishment into the Liuer through the vmbilicall veine by a naturall instinct.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Umbilical Arteries, are two Arteries marching from the Navil, through Peritonæum to the sides of the Bladder.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 512. The Embrio doth breath, but not feed, through the Umbilical vessels.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Liver, These two Lobes [of the Liver] are separated by a Scissure or Cleft, through which the Umbelical Vein enters.
1774. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist. (1862), I. ii. 158. The bloodvessels that go to the placenta … are plainly seen issuing from the navel (being therefore called the umbilical vessels).
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 715. The umbilical artery always furnishes three or four, which ramify in the walls of the bladder.
1841. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 629. The arteries … represent the umbilical arteries of the human fetus.
c. Path. and Med. Affecting, proceeding from, or applied to, the navel.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 155. In umbilical hernia the parts protruded pass out at the umbilicus, and are commonly the intestines, or omentum, or both.
1862. Habershon, Dis. Abdomen (ed. 2), 570. Strumous Peritonitis. Fæcal Abscess. Umbilical Discharge.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2678/1. Umbilical bandage,… a broad band of fabric which is buckled around the umbilical region of the body to serve as an abdominal supporter and for palliating ombilical hernia. Ibid. An umbilical truss, designed for the same purpose.
d. Connected on the female side.
1888. N. & Q., 7th Ser. V. 493/2. The direct lineal ancestress in the female line, or what is sometimes termed umbilical or uterine ancestress.
2. Umbilical cord: a. The flexible string that attaches the fœtus to the placenta; the navel-string.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Navel, The umbilical cord or navel-string of the new-born infant.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 74. He combats the opinion … that the death of the child necessarily follows from the neglect of tying the umbilical cord after delivery.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, Ox, 167/2. Some farmers after the birth of the calf attach a small weight to the umbilical cord, in order to facilitate the separation and expulsion of the placenta.
1888. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., VI. 22/2. The umbilical cord normally presents torsions.
fig. 1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Swedenborg, Wks. (Bohn), I. 334. With a force of many men, he could never break the umbilical cord which held him to nature.
1859. I. Taylor, Logic in Theol., 217. That intercourse which is linking England with India—that umbilical cord through which the circulation, to and fro, is going on.
1864. L. O’Rourke, trans. Hugo’s Intellectual Autobiography (1907), 204. Making the idea external to the poet without its ceasing to be inherent in him through idiosyncrasy, that umbilical cord which unites creation to creator.
b. Bot. The small peduncle that attaches a seed to the placenta. Similarly umbilical bundle, vessel.
1731. P. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Vegetation, This fermented Liquor is convey’d by the Umbilical Vessel to the Trunk of the little Plant.
1819. Lindley, trans. Richard’s Obs. Fruits & Seeds, 6. Every visible process of the trophosperm which bears a single seed is known by the name of umbilical chord. Ibid. (1830), Nat. Syst. Bot., 150. Seeds attached by umbilical cords to placentæ.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’s Bot., 252. From it [an umbilicus] a denser bundle of threads runs downwards to the peridium, the umbilical bundle.
3. Conchol. Provided or connected with, of the nature of, an umbilicus.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 128. The particular species of the Nautilus, as shells, are the papiraceous, the eared, and the umbilical.
1822. J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 147. In some instances the umbilical termination [of a shell] is filled, as if by an exudation of callus.
1894. Geol. Mag., Oct., 438. The Australian form is distinguished by the greater prominence of its short umbilical ribs.
4. Geom. Forming, or pertaining to, an umbilicus.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Umbilical Points, in Mathematicks, the same with Foci.
1841. J. R. Young, Math. Dissert., ii. 34. Dupin … clearly saw that Mouge had misinterpreted this symbol in his investigation of umbilical points.
1851. Sylvester, in Lond., etc. Phil. Mag., Feb., 136, note. As the two surfaces jut one close into the other at this point, it would perhaps be not improper to designate the contact at such point as umbilical.
1863. Frost & Wolstenholme, Solid Geom., 144. The fixed point is called an umbilical focus, the intersection of the planes a directrix, and the constant ratio the umbilical modulus.
5. Occupying a central point or position.
1742. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3), II. 293. The Chapterhouse is large, supported, as to its arched Roof, by one umbilical pillar.
1760. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, I. xxiii. His soul might as well, unless for mere ceremony, or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,… play the fool out o’ doors as in her own house.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 243. The Ætolians were stiled umbilical; and looked upon themselves as the central people in Greece.
B. sb. pl. The umbilical vessels.
1774. Cooper, in Phil. Trans., LXV. 316. It is plain also, that the blood passed … through the hypogastrics and umbilicals to the placenta.
