Definition of Ball-and-socket joint

1. Noun. A freely moving joint in which a sphere on the head of one bone fits into a rounded cavity in the other bone.


2. Noun. A joint that can rotate within a socket.
Generic synonyms: Joint
Terms within: Socket

Definition of Ball-and-socket joint

1. Noun. A joint in which one segment has a rounded end and the next segment has a bowl-shaped end, with the rounded end being fitted into the bowl shape, allowing the first segment to move around an indefinite number of axes which have one common center. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of Ball-and-socket joint

1. A multiaxial synovial joint in which a more or less extensive sphere on the head of one bone fits into a rounded cavity in the other bone, as in the hip joint. Synonym: articulatio spheroidea, articulatio cotylica, cotyloid joint, enarthrodial joint, enarthrosis, socket joint, spheroid articulation, spheroid joint. (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Ball-and-socket Joint

balkers
balkier
balkiest
balkily
balkiness
balkinesses
balking
balkingly
balkings
balkish
balkline
balklines
balks
balky
ball-and-socket joint
ball-and-socket joints
ball-breaker
ball-breakers
ball-buster
ball-by-ball
ball-club
ball-clubs
ball-flower
ball-flowers
ball-hawking
ball-peen hammer
ball-peen hammers
ball-pein hammer
ball-pein hammers

Literary usage of Ball-and-socket joint

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Mechanics of Machinery by Alexander Blackie William Kennedy (1886)
"THE familiar combination known as the Ball and Socket Joint is not, ... The links connected by the ball and socket joint could not be directly connected by ..."

2. A Handbook of Health by Woods Hutchinson (1920)
"Each of the limbs has a single, long, rounded bone in the upper part, known in the arm as the humerus, and two bones A HINGE JOINT A ball-and-socket joint ..."

3. Handbook for Gas Engineers and Managers by Thomas Newbigging (1904)
"The ball and socket joint is shown in Fig. 123. This particular form is the invention of Mr. JZ Kay, and has been successfully" employed for main pipes ..."

4. The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette (1840)
"This blast can be regulated by the stop cock F on the air pipe. G, a ball and socket joint for adjusting the air jet to the gas ..."

5. Treatise on Mine-surveying by Bennett Hooper Brough (1906)
"This tripod head combines the play of the ball and socket joint and the accuracy and rigidity of the theodolite parallel plates. The ordinary form of tripod ..."

6. Animal Physiology by William Benjamin Carpenter (1859)
"articulations,—the hinge-joint, and the ball-and-socket joint. ... Of the perfect ball-and-socket joint we have in Man only two examples,—the shoulder, ..."

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