| tactile organ | Any one of the sensory end organs. Synonym: organum tactus, tactile organ. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| tactile sense | 1. To come in contact with; to hit or strike lightly against; to extend the hand, foot, or the like, so as to reach or rest on. "Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly." (Milton) 2. To perceive by the sense of feeling. "Nothing but body can be touched or touch." (Greech) 3. To come to; to reach; to attain to. "The god, vindictive, doomed them never more- Ah, men unblessed! to touch their natal shore." (Pope) 4. To try; to prove, as with a touchstone. "Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed." (Shak) 5. To relate to; to concern; to affect. "The quarrel toucheth none but us alone." (Shak) 6. To handle, speak of, or deal with; to treat of. "Storial thing that toucheth gentilesse." (Chaucer) 7. To meddle or interfere with; as, I have not touched the books. 8. To affect the senses or the sensibility of; to move; to melt; to soften. "What of sweet before Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this and harsh." (Milton) "The tender sire was touched with what he said." (Addison) 9. To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush. "The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right." (Pope) 10. To infect; to affect slightly. 11. To make an impression on; to have effect upon. "Its face . . . So hard that a file will not touch it." (Moxon) 12. To strike; to manipulate; to play on; as, to touch an instrument of music. "[They] touched their golden harps." (Milton) 13. To perform, as a tune; to play. "A person is the royal retinue touched a light and lively air on the flageolet." (Sir W. Scott) 14. To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly. " No decree of mine, . . . [to] touch with lightest moment of impulse his free will," 15. To harm, afflict, or distress. "Let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee." (Gen. Xxvi. 28, 29) 16. To affect with insanity, especially in a slight degree; to make partially insane; rarely used except in the past participle. "She feared his head was a little touched." (Ld. Lytton) 17. <geometry> To be tangent to. See Tangent. 18. To lay a hand upon for curing disease. To touch a sail, to keep the ship as near the wind as possible. To touch up, to repair; to improve by touches or emendation. Origin: F. Toucher, OF. Touchier, tuchier; of Teutonic origin; cf. OHG. Zucchen, zukken, to twitch, pluck, draw, G. Zukken, zukken, v. Intens. Fr. OHG. Ziohan to draw, G. Ziehen, akin to E. Tug. See Tuck, Tug, and cf. Tocsin, Toccata. 1. The act of touching, or the state of being touched; contact. "Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting." (Shak) 2. <physiology> The sense by which pressure or traction exerted on the skin is recognised; the sense by which the properties of bodies are determined by contact; the tactile sense. See Tactile sense, under Tactile. "The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine." (Pope) Pure tactile feelings are necessarily rare, since temperature sensations and muscular sensations are more or less combined with them. The organs of touch are found chiefly in the epidermis of the skin and certain underlying nervous structures. 3. Act or power of exciting emotion. "Not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us." (Shak) 4. An emotion or affection. "A true, natural, and a sensible touch of mercy." (Hooker) 5. Personal reference or application. "Speech of touch toward others should be sparingly used." (Bacon) 6. A stroke; as, a touch of raillery; a satiric touch; hence, animadversion; censure; reproof. "I never bare any touch of conscience with greater regret." (Eikon Basilike) 7. A single stroke on a drawing or a picture. "Never give the least touch with your pencil till you have well examined your design." (Dryden) 8. Feature; lineament; trait. "Of many faces, eyes, and hearts, To have the touches dearest prized." (Shak) 9. The act of the hand on a musical instrument; bence, in the plural, musical notes. "Soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony." (Shak) 10. A small quantity intermixed; a little; a dash. "Eyes La touch of Sir Peter Lely in them." (Hazlitt) "Madam, I have a touch of your condition." (Shak) 11. A hint; a suggestion; slight notice. "A small touch will put him in mind of them." (Bacon) 12. A slight and brief essay. "Print my preface in such form as, in the booksellers' phrase, will make a sixpenny touch." (Swift) 13. A touchstone; hence, stone of the sort used for touchstone. " Now do I play the touch." "A neat new monument of touch and alabaster." (Fuller) 14. Hence, examination or trial by some decisive standard; test; proof; tried quality. "Equity, the true touch of all laws." (Carew) "Friends of noble touch ." (Shak) 15. The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers; as, a heavy touch, or a light touch, also, the manner of touching, striking, or pressing the keys of a piano; as, a legato touch; a staccato touch. 16. The broadest part of a plank worked top and but (see Top and but, under Top,), or of one worked anchor-stock fashion (that is, tapered from the middle to both ends); also, the angles of the stern timbers at the counters. 17. That part of the field which is beyond the line of flags on either side. 18. A boys' game; tag. In touch, outside of bounds. To be in touch, to be in contact, or in sympathy. To keep touch. To be true or punctual to a promise or engagement; hence, to fulfill duly a function. "My mind and senses keep touch and time." (Sir W. Scott) To keep in contact; to maintain connection or sympathy;-with with or of. Touch and go, a phrase descriptive of a narrow escape. True as touch (i.e, touchstone), quite true. Origin: Cf. F. Touche. See Touch. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| acoustic papilla | A prominent ridge of highly specialised epithelium in the floor of the cochlear duct overlying the basilar membrane of cochlea, containing one inner row and three outer rows of hair cells, or cells of Corti (the auditory receptor cells innervated by the cochlear nerve) supported by various columnar cells: the pillars of Corti, cells of Hensen, and cells of Claudius; the spiral organ is partly overhung by an awning-like shelf, the tectorial membrane, the free marginal zone of which is covered by a gelatinous substance in which the stereocilia of the outer hair cells are embedded. Synonym: organum spirale, acoustic papilla, Corti's organ. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Bergmeister's papilla | A small mass of glial tissue that forms during foetal life a temporary conical investment of the hyaloid artery at its emergence into the vitreous chamber; vestiges of it may persist as a prepapillary membrane. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bile papilla | Point of opening of the common bile duct and pancreatic duct into the duodenum; it is located posteriorly in the descending part of the duodenum. Synonym: papilla duodeni major, bile papilla, papilla of Vater, Santorini's major caruncle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| vallate papilla | One of eight or ten projections from the dorsum of the tongue forming a row anterior to and parallel with the sulcus terminalis; each papilla is surrounded by a circular trench (fossa) having a slightly raised outer wall (vallum); on the sides of the vallate papilla and the opposed margin of the vallum are numerous taste buds. Synonym: papilla vallata, circumvallate papilla. Vascular papillae, dermal papillae containing vascular loops. (05 Mar 2000) |
| palatine papilla | A slight elevation of the mucosa at the anterior extremity of the raphe of the palate. Synonym: papilla incisiva, palatine papilla. Interdental papilla, the gingiva that fills the interproximal space between two adjacent teeth. Synonym: gingival septum, interproximal papilla. (05 Mar 2000) |
| major duodenal papilla | Point of opening of the common bile duct and pancreatic duct into the duodenum; it is located posteriorly in the descending part of the duodenum. Synonym: papilla duodeni major, bile papilla, papilla of Vater, Santorini's major caruncle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| papilla | 1. <anatomy> A projection occurring in various animal tissues and organs. 2. <botany> A small blunt hair on plants. (18 Nov 1997) |
| papilla dentis | Mesodermal tissue enclosed in the invaginated portion of the epithelial enamel organ and giving rise to the dentin and pulp. (12 Dec 1998) |
| papilla duodeni major | Point of opening of the common bile duct and pancreatic duct into the duodenum; it is located posteriorly in the descending part of the duodenum. Synonym: papilla duodeni major, bile papilla, papilla of Vater, Santorini's major caruncle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| papilla duodeni minor | The site of the opening of the accessory pancreatic duct into the duodenum, located anterior to and slightly superior to the major papilla. Synonym: papilla duodeni minor, Santorini's minor caruncle. Nerve papilla, one of the papillae in the dermis containing a tactile corpuscle or other form of end organ. Synonym: neurothele. (05 Mar 2000) |
| papilla incisiva | A slight elevation of the mucosa at the anterior extremity of the raphe of the palate. Synonym: papilla incisiva, palatine papilla. Interdental papilla, the gingiva that fills the interproximal space between two adjacent teeth. Synonym: gingival septum, interproximal papilla. (05 Mar 2000) |
| papilla lacrimalis | A slight projection from the margin of each eyelid near the medial commisure, in the centre of which is the lacrimal punctum (opening of the lacrimal duct). Synonym: papilla lacrimalis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| papilla lingualis | One of numerous variously shaped projections of the mucous membrane of the dorsum of the tongue. Synonym: papilla lingualis. The lingual portion of the gingiva filling the interproximal space between adjacent teeth; in molar and premolar areas, there may be separate lingual and buccal interdental papillae. See: interdental papilla. (05 Mar 2000) |