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What is "extremity"

Crossword clues for extremity

extremity
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
extremity
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
eastern
▪ The yard was situated at the eastern extremity of Polruan, where the forest rises steeply from the water's edge.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Alviso is a mostly Hispanic area in the city's northern extremity.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Although Alexander lent his authority to domestic reforms, it is unwise to think of him as a daring pilot in extremity.
▪ For example, football players should focus strengthening lower extremity muscles.
▪ Her head was conical, an extremity too, and so thick with black hair that she almost needed a haircut.
▪ Howarth wondered if he were ill or whether this was the extremity of tiredness.
▪ Muelle Deportivo is protected by its own breakwater and is located in the southern extremity of the main harbour.
▪ Nothing specific epitomises New York; its essence is extremity, and diversity, packed into the highest possible density.
▪ The person often describes previous episodes of low back pain with or without lower extremity radiation.
▪ These may involve a part of one extremity or one side of the face.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Extremity

Extremity \Ex*trem"i*ty\, n.; pl. Extremities. [L. extremitas: cf. F. extr['e]mit['e].]

  1. The extreme part; the utmost limit; the farthest or remotest point or part; as, the extremities of a country.

    They sent fleets . . . to the extremities of Ethiopia.
    --Arbuthnot.

  2. (Zo["o]l.) One of locomotive appendages of an animal; a limb; a leg or an arm of man.

  3. The utmost point; highest degree; most aggravated or intense form. ``The extremity of bodily pain.''
    --Ray.

  4. The highest degree of inconvenience, pain, or suffering; greatest need or peril; extreme need; necessity.

    Divers evils and extremities that follow upon such a compulsion shall here be set in view.
    --Milton.

    Upon mere extremity he summoned this last Parliament.
    --Milton.

    Syn: Verge; border; extreme; end; termination.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
extremity

late 14c., "one of two things at the extreme ends of a scale," from Old French estremite (13c.), from Latin extremitatem (nominative extremitas) "the end of a thing," from extremus "outermost;" see extreme (adj.), the etymological sense of which is better preserved in this word. Meaning "utmost point or end" is from c.1400; meaning "limb or organ of locomotion, appendage" is from early 15c. (compare extremities). Meaning "highest degree" of anything is early 15c. Related: Extremital.

Wiktionary
extremity

n. 1 The most extreme or far point of something. 2 An extreme measure. 3 A hand or foot. 4 A limb (gloss: major appendage of human or animal such as a leg an arm or a wing)

WordNet
extremity

  1. n. an external body part that projects from the body; "it is important to keep the extremities warm" [syn: appendage, member]

  2. an extreme condition or state (especially of adversity or disease)

  3. the greatest or utmost degree; "the extremity of despair"

  4. the outermost or farthest region or point

  5. that part of a limb that is farthest from the torso

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "extremity".

Therefore, before they would have recourse to extremities, they thought it advisable to consult the senate a second time.

Blake speaks of a case of congenital amputation of both the upper extremities.

Belinovski gives an account of a hip-joint amputation and extirpation of a fatty caudal extremity, the only one he had ever observed.

Champeuois reports the case of a Sumatra boy of seven, who was injured to such an extent by an explosion as to necessitate the amputation of all his extremities, and, despite his tender age and the extent of his injuries, the boy completely recovered.

The curved architraves rise at each extremity like two menacing horns, pointing upward toward the far-off blue canopy of the star-spangled sky, as if they would communicate to the gods the knowledge they have acquired in the depths of their foundations from the earth, full of sepulchres and death, which surrounds them.

HUNG limply from the wagon wheel, his mind benumbed with the pain drumming through every extremity of his broken body.

When even excommunication failed to make him yield and church bells had been silenced in important sees, the clergy in extremity had summoned Bernard from Clairvaux to bring the culprit to submission.

They are met at the sides by the lateral longitudinal muscles, which blend, and their fibres run the whole length of the proboscis down to the extremity.

Mary, the malecontent lords, observing every thing carried to extremity against her, were naturally led to embrace her cause, and shelter themselves under her authority.

The malecontents, it was feared, would proceed to extremities, and immediately kindle a civil war in the kingdom.

THE BONES OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES, sixty in number, are classed as follows: The Femur, Patella, Tibia, Fibula, Tarsus, Metatarsus, and Phalanges.

Saviard informs us that he saw a patient at the Hotel Dieu who had a horn like that of a ram, instead of a nail, on each great toe, the extremities of which were turned to the metatarsus and overlapped the whole of the other toes of each foot.

Having observed, by means of the most delicate micrometrical instruments, the exact position of the star, let us now pass along this inconceivable road, until we reach its other extremity.

May the keel of the new vessel lay along the dockyard, and soon the stem and stern-post, mortised at each of its extremities, rose almost perpendicularly.

The eventual result is general paralysis, necrosis of the limb extremities, and termination.