Pl. ǁ uteri. [L.; whence F. utérus (Paré). Cf. It., Sp., Pg. utero.]
1. In the primates: The organ in which the young are conceived, developed, and protected till birth; the female organ of gestation; the womb.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, IV. xiii. (1631), 222. It is called Vterus properly in women.
1638. A. Read, Man. Anat. Body of Man, 239. The hypogastricall veins,… as soone as they come to be implanted into the substance of the uterus,… lose their owne coats.
1702. Drake, in Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1236. The Observation and Experiment being made on the Uterus of a Cow.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Matrix, The Cavity of the Uterus.
1770. Med. Observ. (1772), IV. 388. The History of a fatal Inversion of the Uterus.
1834. Owen, in Phil. Trans., CXXIV. 333. A Description of the Impregnated Uterus of the Kangaroo.
1837. Baly, trans. Müller’s Physiol., 1580. An examination of recently impregnated uteri.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. iv. 123. In all mammals the uterus is developed from two simple primitive tubes.
transf. 1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Generation, Every Herb and Tree bears its Seed…; which being thrown into the Earth, as into its Uterus, spreads forth its Roots.
b. In the lower female animals, fishes, or birds: The matrix; the ovary.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. s.v., Uterus of Fishes.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 383/2. Leeches are oviparous. The ova remain in the uterus for some time.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., 178. The outer, or vaginal, end of the uterus [in Turbellaria].
1878. F. J. Bell, trans. Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 182. Special portions of the oviduct [in Vermes] function as a Uterus, by which name parts, very different morphologically, are known.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 166. The ends of the uteri open … into the cloaca.
c. (See quot.)
1841. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 200. The vulva [in leeches] … leads into a pear-shaped membranous bag, which is usually, but improperly, named the uterus.
2. Bot. a. = PERICARP.
1676. Grew, Anat. Flowers, vii. heading, The Time, in which the Uterus or Fruit and Seed-Case are formed. Ibid. (1677), Anat. Fruits, III. v. § 1. The Fruit, strictly so called, is, A Fleshy Uterus, which grows more moist and Pulpy, as the Seed ripens. But the Seed-Case … is, A Membraneous Uterus.
† b. (See quot.) Obs. rare–1.
1776. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., 396. Stygma, the female Uterus, at the Top of the Pistil, furnished with a moist Humour.
c. In Fungi: (see later quots.).
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 981. Angiogastres. Uterus finally bursting forth, separate from the receptacle.
1836. M. J. Berkeley, Fungi, in Smith’s Eng. Flora, V. II. 19. Uterus sessile, bursting irregularly, marbled internally with anastomosing veins.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1197/2. Uterus, the volva or receptacle of certain fungals.
1895. M. C. Cooke, Study Fungi, 356/2. Peridium, the enveloping coat of a sporophore, or receptacle in which the spores are developed in a closed cavity. In Gastromycetes sometimes called the uterus, the contents being the gleba.
† 3. A hollow or cavity. Obs.–1.
1693. Ray, Three Disc., 137. The Tophus it self must have vegetated, containing a cavity or uterus of the shape of the Tooth, into which an osseous humour,… filling the cavity of the Uterus, must there have coagulated.
