Vertebrate
(Ver"te*brate Ver"te*bra`ted) a. [L. vertebratus.]
1. (Anat.) Having a backbone, or vertebral column, containing the spinal marrow, as man, quadrupeds,
birds, amphibia, and fishes.
2. (Bot.) Contracted at intervals, so as to resemble the spine in animals. Henslow.
3. (Zoöl.) Having movable joints resembling vertebræ; — said of the arms ophiurans.
4. (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to the Vertebrata; — used only in the form vertebrate.
Vertebre
(Ver"te*bre) n. (Anat.) A vertebra. [Obs.]
Vertebro-
(Ver"te*bro-) A combining form used in anatomy to indicate connection with, or relation to, a
vertebra, vertebræ, or vertebral column; as in vertebrocostal.
Vertebro-iliac
(Ver"te*bro-il"i*ac) a. (Anat.) Iliolumbar.
Vertex
(Ver"tex) n.; pl. Vertexes L. Vertices [L. vertex, -icis, a whirl, top of the head, top, summit,
from vertere to turn. See Verse, and cf. Vortex.] A turning point; the principal or highest point; top; summit; crown; apex.
Specifically: —
(a) (Anat.) The top, or crown, of the head.
(b) (Anat.) The zenith, or the point of the heavens directly overhead.
(c) (Math.) The point in any figure opposite to, and farthest from, the base; the terminating point of some
particular line or lines in a figure or a curve; the top, or the point opposite the base.
The principal vertex of a conic section is, in the parabola, the vertex of the axis of the curve: in the ellipse,
either extremity of either axis, but usually the left-hand vertex of the transverse axis; in the hyperbola,
either vertex, but usually the right- hand vertex of the transverse axis.
Vertex of a curve (Math.), the point in which the axis of the curve intersects it. — Vertex of an angle
(Math.), the point in which the sides of the angle meet. — Vertex of a solid, or of a surface of revolution
(Math.), the point in which the axis pierces the surface.
Vertical
(Ver"ti*cal) a. [Cf. F. vertical. See Vertex.]
1. Of or pertaining to the vertex; situated at the vertex, or highest point; directly overhead, or in the zenith; perpendicularly
above one.
Charity . . . is the vertical top of all religion.
Jer. Taylor. 2. Perpendicular to the plane of the horizon; upright; plumb; as, a vertical line.
Vertical angle (Astron. & Geod.), an angle measured on a vertical circle, called an angle of elevation,
or altitude, when reckoned from the horizon upward, and of depression when downward below the
horizon. — Vertical anthers (Bot.), such anthers as stand erect at the top of the filaments. — Vertical
circle (Astron.), an azimuth circle. See under Azimuth. — Vertical drill, an drill. See under Upright.
— Vertical fire (Mil.), the fire, as of mortars, at high angles of elevation. — Vertical leaves (Bot.),
leaves which present their edges to the earth and the sky, and their faces to the horizon, as in the Australian
species of Eucalyptus. — Vertical limb, a graduated arc attached to an instrument, as a theodolite,
for measuring vertical angles. — Vertical line. (a) (Dialing) A line perpendicular to the horizon. (b)
(Conic Sections) A right line drawn on the vertical plane, and passing through the vertex of the cone.
(c) (Surv.) The direction of a plumb line; a line normal to the surface of still water. (d) (Geom., Drawing,
