Search a word

vertebra

noun: one of the small bones that are linked together to form the backbone
noun: one of the bony or cartilaginous segments composing the spinal column, consisting in some lower 'vertebrates' of several distinct elements which never become united, and in higher vertebrates having a short more or less cylindrical body whose ends articulate by pads of elastic or cartilaginous tissue with those of adjacent 'vertebrae' and a bony arch that encloses the spinal cord

(..) - Get close-ups. - The victim's skin removed, this time in two large diamond-shaped sections above the buttocks. Exit wound level with the second or the third thoracic vertebrae, six inches from the right shoulder blade. Starling, when I told that sheriff we shouldn't talk in front of a woman, (..)
1991 The Silence of the Lambs