[f. as prec. + -MENT: cf. Fr. embranchement.] A branching off or out, as of an arm of a river, a spur of a mountain-range; concr. a branch, ramification. Also fig.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 194. The lateral embranchments of the main valley of the Rhone.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, VI. § 6. 405. Human life is divided into two embranchments.
1862. G. P. Scrope, Volcanoes, 365. Several embranchments or strings of conoidal hills.
1876. Quain, Elem. Anat. (ed. 8), II. 157. The sympathetic set of nerves is a mere … embranchment of the cerebro-spinal system.
1877. Clery, Min. Tact., xiv. 201. The point of embranchment [of the road] was screened by a ridge.
