meniscus
nounUK, US /məˈnɪs.kəs/
Etymology From Ancient Greek μηνίσκος (mēnískos, “crescent”), from μήνη (mḗnē, “moon”). Piecewise doublet of moonish.
1
A crescent moon, or an object shaped like it.
- And from Crabbe's own forehead sweat dripped or gathered into a kind of meniscus to be scooped off.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 554:
- He opened wide both casements; they gave on a parking place four floors below; the thin meniscus overhead was too wan to illumine the roofs of the houses descending toward the invisible lake [...].1972, Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things, McGraw-Hill, published 1972, page 19:
2
Engineering, Natural sciences, Optics, Physical sciences, Physics A lens which is convex on one side and concave on the other, being crescent-shaped in cross-section.
3
The curved surface of liquids in tubes, whether concave or convex, caused by the surface tension of the liquid.
- Derived terms
- meniscal, meniscectomy, meniscoid, meniscotomy, meniscus midge
- Related terms
- lunette