a. [ad. mod.L. trochleār-is, f. trochlea: see prec. and -AR.]
1. Anat. Belonging to or connected with a trochlea, as a muscle, nerve, etc.; forming a trochlea, pulley-like, as a surface of a bone, etc.
Trochlear fossa, t. spine, parts of the frontal bone connected with the trochlea of the eye. T. muscle, the superior oblique muscle of the eye. T. nerve, each of the fourth pair of cranial nerves, the motor nerves for the trochlear muscles. T. nucleus, a nucleus in the brain from which the trochlear nerve arises.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Trochlear muscle, a muscle made almost like a windlas or pully.
1808. Barclay, Muscular Motions, 304. In many cases … the particular direction in which several muscles act … is regulated by trochlear ligaments or pulleys.
1870. N. F. Hele, Aldeburgh, iv. 29. A trochlear end of a humerus.
1875. Sir W. Turner, in Encycl. Brit., I. 840/2. The patella moves up and down the trochlear surface of the femur.
2. Bot. Pulley-shaped; circular and contracted in the middle like the wheel of a pulley, as the embryo of Commelynaceæ.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 255. It [Spiderwort] has scarcely any affinity with Palms, except in its trochlear embryo.
So Trochleariform a., Bot. [f. mod.L. trochleāri-s + -FORM; irreg. for *trochleiform, f. TROCHLEA + -FORM] = sense 2 above; ǁ Trochlearis, Anat. [mod.L. (see above), sc. musculus or nervus), the trochlear muscle, also the trochlear nerve: Trochleary a., Anat. (rare) = sense 1 above; Trochleate a., Bot. = sense 2 above (Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., 1888).
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., *Trochleariform.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), *Trochlearis, the upper, or greater oblique Muscle of the Eye.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 78/2. The pulley of the trochlearis muscle of the eye.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Trochlearis.… 2. Trochlear nerve.
1828. Webster, *Trochleary, pertaining to the trochlea; as, the trochleary muscle,… the trochleary nerve…. Parr.
