TUBERCLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tubercle

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Tubercle n.

A small knoblike prominence or excrescence, whether natural or morbid; as, a tubercle on a plant; a tubercle on a bone; the tubercles appearing on the body in leprosy.

(Med.) A small mass or aggregation of morbid matter; especially, the deposit which accompanies scrofula or phthisis. This is composed of a hard, grayish, or yellowish, translucent or opaque matter, which gradually softens, and excites suppuration in its vicinity. It is most frequently found in the lungs, causing consumption.

Tubercle bacillus (Med.), a minute vegetable organism (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, formerly Bacillus tuberculosis, and also called Koch's bacillus) discovered by Koch, a German physician, in the sputum of consumptive patients and in tuberculous tissue. It is the causative agent of tuberculosis.

See images of 'Tubercle'

Etymology of 'Tubercle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Tubercle" Quotes from Famous Books

... eruptions vary in size from one line to two inches in diameter, and may be scattered over the entire surface of the body, although they most frequently appear upon the elbows and knees. Alphos may consist of a single tubercle, or of large clusters constituting patches. The scales vary in color and thickness. In Colored Plate III, Figs. 14 and 15, are fine illustrations of alphos. When a person begins to recover from this affection, the scales fall off, ...

— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

Words linked to "Tubercle" : appendage, lesion, plant process, nodule, outgrowth, tubercular, enation, tubercle bacillus, tuberosity, tuberculous, deltoid tuberosity