sphinctern.

1578 J. Banister Hist. Man vii. f. 97 Some [Arteries] together with certaine Ueynes of Vena caua, do flowe to the Muscles called the Sphincter.

1594 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. II. 352 This straight gutte hath this muscle, which the Physicions call Sphincter.

1617 J. Woodall Surgions Mate 10 The Sphingtures or gathering muscles of the fundament will not of themselues without resistance be opened.

1623 J. Hart tr. P. van Foreest Arraignm. Vrines ii. 4 The two muscles called Sphyncters.

1693 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 17 819 The Fibres that compose the Sphincter of the Bladder.

1740–1 G. Berkeley in A. C. Fraser Life & Lett. G. Berkeley (1871) viii. 263 I have also known tow, dipped in brandy and thrust into the fundament, to be effectual in strengthening that sphincter.

1759 O. Goldsmith Bee 27 Oct. 112 A glutinous liquid, which..it spins into a thread coarser or finer, as it chuses to contract or dilate its sphincter.

1807 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 17 421 In the lower part [of the pupil], the divided fibres of the sphincter receded.

1851 G. F. Richardson Introd. Geol. (1855) 245 A lung..which opens and shuts, at the will of the animal, by the action of a muscular sphincter.

1872 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (ed. 6) 145 The muscular fibres are so disposed as to form a sort of sphincter around the aperture of communication.

1737 M. Green Spleen 697 Debarr'd the pleasure to impart By av'rice, sphincter of the heart.

1753 Philos. Trans. 1751–2 (Royal Soc.) 47 455 The animal [sc. a coral-insect], when it wanted to come forth from its niche, forced the sphincter at its entrance.

1837 P. Keith Bot. Lexicon 335 Their edge has the appearance of being a sort of thickened sphincter capable of opening and shutting.

1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 348 The margin of this opening possessed slight sphincter power.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. III. 365 A spasm of the sphincter fibres at the lower end of the circular coat of the œsophagus.

1949 M. Mead Male & Female v. 115 They [sc. Samoan children] do not need to fear that they themselves, by their unsteady sphincter control,..will endanger the normal order of existence.

1957 Psychoanalytic Rev. 44 121 The attainment of anal sphincter control in childhood is so fundamental in human socialization that the surgical destruction of anal sphincter control must result in a severe emotional and social disruption.

1963 R. P. Dales Annelids i. 32 A terminal bladder or vesicle closed by means of a sphinctered nephridiopore.

1965 W. H. Auden About House (1966) 27 A second childhood, petulant, weak-sphinctered In a cheap hotel.

1883 J. M. Duncan Clin. Lect. Dis. Women (ed. 2) viii. 54 This is a sphincteric opening, and during the child-bearing period of life it must open and close.

1884 C. B. Kelsey Dis. Rectum v. 106 No amount of sphincteric contraction would close it.

1889 Cent. Dict. Sphincterial.

1976 R. Pound A. P. Herbert xxvi. 298 Its equability, with or without the reinforcement of vitamins, deep breathing, and the eccentric sphincterial discipline, may have added to his length of days.

1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 160/1 The closing appears to be effected by sphincter-like muscles.

1887 W. J. Sollas in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 415 Which communicates through a sphinctrate aperture.