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The series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
Answer for the clue "The series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord ", 8 letters:
backbone
Alternative clues for the word backbone
Word definitions for backbone in dictionaries
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Backbone is the Vertebral column of a vertebrate organism.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"spine," early 14c., from back (n.) + bone (n.). Figurative sense of "strength of character" is attested from 1843.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Backbone \Back"bone"\ (b[a^]k"b[=o]n`), n. [2d back, n. + bone.] The column of bones in the back which sustains and gives firmness to the frame; the spine; the vertebral or spinal column. Anything like, or serving the purpose of, a backbone. The lofty mountains ...
Usage examples of backbone.
Alea saw that the reddish-brown creature on his wrist was no bird, but a sort of pterodactyl, though its head did look rather like that of a horse and its neck and backbone sprouted a row of triangular plates that stretched down its tail to an arrowpoint on the end.
The abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty and encouragement of the Fenian Raids by the American people had put the Canadians on their mettle and stiffened their backbone, so that neither retaliatory threats or honeyed allurements had any effect in changing their minds from carving out their own destiny under the broad folds of the Union Jack.
When we ascend to vertebrates, those animals having a backbone, the amount of the nervous substance is greater, the organic functions are more complex, and the actions begin to display intelligence.
There was a steel axis to the whole affair, a central backbone which terminated in the engine and propeller, and the men and magazines were forward in a series of cabins under the expanded headlike forepart.
The Herero boy, long tormented by missionaries into a fear of Christian sins, jackal-ghosts, potent European strand-wolves, pursuing him, seeking to feed on his soul, the precious worm that lived along his backbone, now tried to cage his old gods, snare them in words, give them away, savage, paralyzed, to this scholarly white who seemed so in love with language.
As I see it, the Russians are starting to break the backbone of Hitlerism, but at terrible cost.
University of Michigan, this machine was part of the interuniversity very high speed Backbone Network Service, or vbns network, which linked Michigan to several other research-oriented universities.
With my free hand, I telephoned the butcher and asked if he would saw off the part of the shoulder blade near the neck, keeping the backbone and first ribs attached, and could I get it salted.
Here the bicycles were left, and the group headed westward on foot around the end of the ridgelike hill which formed the backbone of the island and on which all their houses were built.
Hay residence, at the end of the paved road and somewhat more than two miles from the school Here the bicycles were left, and the group headed westward on foot around the end of the ridgelike hill which formed the backbone of the island and on which all their houses were built.
From the apex of the tetrahedron rose the king post, a specially fabricated compound member exactly analogous to the backbone of a vertebrate animal.
Sure, almost any old union would boost wages and straighten out some backbones here, but I know that even the most energetic and democratic unions bear careful watching by their members.
Below Apollonia lay the river Aous, one of the major streams which came down from the backbone itself.
The queen looped her chain of coins around the wrist of one of them and towed him playfully off across the dim and crowded maze of tables, beaded curtains, and archways that formed the backbone of the Goblet.
Vertebrates do it by means of a backbone and internal skeleton, arthropods achieve structural rigidity by means of a tough external skeleton or shell.