protuberance
nounUK /pɹəˈtjuː.bə.ɹəns/ · US /pɹəˈtuː.bɚ.əns/
Etymology From French protubérance, from Latin prōtubērantia (“bulge; protuberance”), from prō + tūber (“swelling; protuberance”) + -antia (“-ance”).
1
A bulge, knob, swelling, spine, or anything that protrudes.
- For the most part they were small standard gauge 0-6-0 side tanks of the type illustrated, with long tapered chimneys and an unusual feature for the Continent in the shape of domeless boilers, the protuberance just behind the chimney being a sandbox.1941 August, “Notes and News: The Swiss South Eastern Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 376:
- Oluanpi's lighthouse looks toward Lanyu, or Orchid Island, a tiny, rocky protuberance sixty-eight miles to the southeast and important because it is the home of the Yami, the smallest and most primitive tribe of aborigines in Taiwan.1979 November, Irene Corbally Kuhn, “Gourmet Holidays Taiwan”, in Gourmet, volume XXXIX, number 11, page 164:
2 more examples
- Ever since their creation the Daleks have been attempting to conquer and enslave as much of the universe as they could get their grubby little protuberances on.1989, Ben Aaronovitch, Remembrance of the Daleks:
- The orchestra is gone. All seventy of them. The things which have replaced them are not human but alien, ill-proportioned pillars of pinkish-brownish flesh. Each has, at its top, a heavy protuberance studded with goopy biological sensors and rubbery openings, and, sprouting from the very cap, lengths of various kinds of vile, off-coloured moss. They are draped in black and white fabrics, weirdly cut to either conceal or highlight their blobby, inconsistent body structures.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 137:
- Related terms
- protuberant