WordNet
n. part of the sirloin next to the wedge bone
Wikipedia
Flat bones are bones whose principal function is either extensive protection or the provision of broad surfaces for muscular attachment. These bones are expanded into broad, flat plates, as in the cranium ( skull), the ilium ( pelvis), sternum and the rib cage. The flat bones are: the occipital, parietal, frontal, nasal, lacrimal, vomer, hip bone (coxal bone), sternum, ribs, and scapulae. In the cranial bones, the layers of compact tissue are familiarly known as the tables of the skull; the outer one is thick and tough; the inner is thin, dense, and brittle, and hence is termed the vitreous (glass-like) table.
These bones are composed of two thin layers of compact bone enclosing between them a variable quantity of cancellous bone, which is the location of red bone marrow. In an adult, most red blood cells are formed in flat bones. The intervening cancellous tissue is called the diploë, and this, in the nasal region of the skull, becomes absorbed so as to leave spaces filled with air–the paranasal sinuses between the two tables.
Usage examples of "flat bone".
She grabbed the hide and the flat bone shovel and raced back to the beach.
He felt a horseshoe ridge of hard flat bone close on his shoulder, hard.
The child picked up her stylus again and chewed on the flat bone end, though she shouldn't because it was the end she used to smooth out mistakes in the wax.
Inclining his head inward so that their temples met, he felt her skin travel slightly across the flat bone of her skull.