Fracture \Frac"ture\ (?; 135), n. [L. fractura, fr. frangere, fractum, to break: cf. F. fracture. See {Fraction}.] 1. The act of breaking or snapping asunder; rupture; breach.
2. (Surg.) The breaking of a bone.
3. (Min.) The texture of a freshly broken surface; as, a compact fracture; an even, hackly, or conchoidal fracture.
{Comminuted fracture} (Surg.), a fracture in which the bone is broken into several parts.
{Complicated fracture} (Surg.), a fracture of the bone combined with the lesion of some artery, nervous trunk, or joint.
{Compound fracture} (Surg.), a fracture in which there is an open wound from the surface down to the fracture.
{Simple fracture} (Surg.), a fracture in which the bone only is ruptured. It does not communicate with the surface by an open wound.
Syn: {Fracture}, {Rupture}.
Usage: These words denote different kinds of breaking, according to the objects to which they are applied. Fracture is applied to hard substances; as, the fracture of a bone. Rupture is oftener applied to soft substances; as, the rupture of a blood vessel. It is also used figuratively. ``To be an enemy and once to have been a friend, does it not embitter the rupture?'' --South.
Fracture \Frac"ture\ (?; 135), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Fractured} (#; 135); p. pr. & vb. n.. {Fracturing}.] [Cf. F. fracturer.] To cause a fracture or fractures in; to break; to burst asunder; to crack; to separate the continuous parts of; as, to fracture a bone; to fracture the skull.
She died of a massive skull fracture, a coroner said.
Some estimates project that by age 70, one-quarter of the women in North America will have suffered a fracture related to the disease.
Tuan Ana Cao, 36, was hit with a baseball bat and was in guarded condition today with a skull fracture at Kings County Hospital.
An 86-year-old woman in generally poor health, hospitalized with a hip fracture, develops staphylococcal pneumonia.
That, in turn, put the two front bolts under stress, causing their eventual fracture and leaving the engine free to fall off, he said.
Thus, ironically, even if rewelding was done, the valve still might fracture.
Doctors at Navarre Hospital said Juan Manuel Garcia received a deep wound in his left thigh and a skull fracture after being tossed in the air by one of the six bulls that made the morning run from the corrals to the city bull ring.
James Kolstad, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, blamed the accident on metal fatigue that caused a back bolt to fracture.
Scientists believe that a fracture in the earth's crust 35 miles below the Pacific coastline south of Lima had caused the quakes, Orbegozo said.
Dymond and colleague Bob Collier, both oceanography professors at Oregon State University, theorize that hydrothermal vents exist along the fracture line, feeding the lake with hot water, chemicals and sediments from a source underground.
But today, with old ethnic emotions erupting anew, Mr. Antonijevic fears that his family will fracture along with his country.
While the Bjork-Shiley is more prone to fracture than other valves, he says it is less likely than other valves to induce life-threatening blood clots.
A 60% lower relative risk of a hip fracture equals a 0.36% reduction in absolute risk.
"You can very easily fracture foreign confidence in U.S. economic management," he said. "I see lots of slippages.
A blemish might be just a surface scratch that could be polished off rather than a microscopic crack that could grow into a fracture.
She said the tiny sparks are created because, when sucrose sugar crystals fracture under pressure, positive and negative electrical charges separate.
He can't say for sure whether she would have survived the valve fracture had she come straight to Duluth.
The institutional structure erected around the leading role of the American economy will fracture as the U.S. becomes preoccupied with its internal economic stresses.
A necropsy on the 14-year-old Kandu revealed that she suffered an upper jaw fracture after striking Corky, a 25-year-old, 8,000-pound female killer whale.
This could eventually fracture the glass, Ford said.
Bari suffered facial injuries and a pelvic fracture and was in serious but stable condition at Highland Hospital, hospital spokesman David Berry said.
Flight attendant Michelle St. Amour, 22, of Anchorage was listed in critical condition Sunday at Providence Hospital, with a skull fracture and neck injuries, hospital officials said.
Her explanation: "triboluminescence resulting from crystal fracture."
One can only imagine the discomfort felt by David Bishop in such circumstances. Yet again the accountancy profession appears to be heading for fracture when consolidation was in sight.
Conlyn, a Navy reserve officer who works as a co-pilot for Delta Airlines, suffered a skull fracture when his ejection seat slammed into a street near the apartment complex.
The investigation of 1,419 British men and women showed "no evidence that the risk of fracture increased with declining dietary calcium," concluded a team of epidemiologists at England's Southampton General Hospital.
The spike-haired singer suffered a compound fracture of his right leg between the knee and ankle and a broken left forearm on Feb. 6. He underwent several operations on his leg.
The Aerostar windshield wiper motor gears also may fracture when the wipers are turned on, if the blades are frozen to the windshield.
In category three, cracks are 5mm to 15mm wide, doors and windows stick and service pipes may fracture.
He and his colleagues have used the ceramic in 66 cases for such purposes as bridging narrow gaps at fracture sites and filling cavities after the removal of cysts or tumors.