Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An organic structure, such as the soft palate, that closes an opening in the body.
  • noun A prosthetic device serving to close an opening in the body.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In photography, the instantaneous shutter of a camera.
  • noun Anything used to close the orifice of a hollow instrument, such as a speculum or catheter, during its introduction.
  • noun That which closes or stops up an entrance, cavity, or the like.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Anat.) Serving as an obturator; closing an opening; pertaining to, or in the region of, the obturator foramen.
  • adjective (Anat.) an opening situated between the public and ischial parts of the innominate bone and closed by the obturator membrane; the thyroid foramen.
  • noun That which closes or stops an opening.
  • noun (Surg.) An apparatus designed to close an unnatural opening, as a fissure of the palate.
  • noun (Ordnance) Any device for preventing the escape of gas through the breech mechanism of a breech-loading gun; a gas check.
  • noun (Photog.) A camera shutter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine An object used to obstruct a hole.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a prosthesis used to close an opening (as to close an opening of the hard palate in cases of cleft palate)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin obtūrō ("to stop, block up").

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