a. [f. next + -AR1. Cf. obs. F. vestibulaire.] Of or pertaining to, of the nature of, resembling or serving as, a vestibule: a. Anat. (Cf. VESTIBULE sb. 2.)
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 537/1. The vestibular part of the membraneous labyrinth … is all that is really fundamental in the structure of an organ of hearing.
1851. Woodward, Mollusca, I. (1856), 23. As in the vestibular cavities of fishes.
1872. Huxley, Phys., viii. 211. The vestibular nerve tells us that sounds are weak or loud, but gives no impression of tone or melody or harmony.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 580. The vestibular termination of the auditory nerve.
b. In general use.
1861. Beresf. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th C., 158. The outer world was fenced off by the interposed atrium or vestibular cloister.
c. Zool. (See quot.)
1887. Sollas, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 416/1. This pseudostomosis is due to a folding of the entire sponge, so as to produce secondary canals or cavities, which may be incurrent (vestibular) or excurrent (cloacal).
So Vestibulary a. rare.
1843. in F. H. Ramadge, Curab. Consumption (1850), 37. The … morbid conditions of this vestibulary portion of the respiratory apparatus.
