Rostrum

['rɒstrəm] or ['rɔstrəm]

Definition

(n.) The beak or head of a ship.

(n.) The Beaks; the stage or platform in the forum where orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, etc., were delivered; -- so called because after the Latin war, it was adorned with the beaks of captured vessels; later, applied also to other platforms erected in Rome for the use of public orators.

(n.) Hence, a stage for public speaking; the pulpit or platform occupied by an orator or public speaker.

(n.) Any beaklike prolongation, esp. of the head of an animal, as the beak of birds.

(n.) The beak, or sucking mouth parts, of Hemiptera.

(n.) The snout of a gastropod mollusk. See Illust. of Littorina.

(n.) The anterior, often spinelike, prolongation of the carapace of a crustacean, as in the lobster and the prawn.

(n.) Same as Rostellum.

(n.) The pipe to convey the distilling liquor into its receiver in the common alembic.

(n.) A pair of forceps of various kinds, having a beaklike form.

Typist: Yvette

Synonyms and Synonymous

n. Platform, stage.

Editor: Tracy

Definition

n. in ancient Rome an erection for public speakers in the Forum adorned with the beaks or heads of ships taken in war: the platform from which a speaker addresses his audience: the snout of an animal or the beak of a bird: the beak of a ship an ancient form of ram:—pl. Ros′trums Ros′tra.—adjs. Ros′tral like a rostrum or beak; Ros′trāte -d beaked.—n.pl. Rostrif′era a suborder of gasteropods with contractile rostrum or snout.—adjs. Rostrif′erous having a rostrum; Ros′triform shaped like a rostrum; Ros′tro-anten′nary pertaining to the rostrum and antenn?of a crustacean; Ros′troid resembling a rostrum; Rostrolat′eral situated alongside the rostrum.—n. Ros′trulum the mouth part of a flea.

Typed by Eddie