free nerve ending
- noun
- /fri nɜrv ˈɛndɪŋ/
- Specialized
:
terminación nerviosa libre
- When you touch something hot, free nerve endings quickly transmit pain signals to alert you.
Examples
-
Within the various depths of skin, free nerve endings help regulate body temperature.
Academic text (2017) -
These neuropeptides are found together in the cutaneous free nerve endings of unmyelinated nociceptor neurons, which generate the sensations of pain and itch.
Academic text (1999) -
The free nerve endings in the skin detect changes in temperature and send signals to the brain.
-
The doctor explained that free nerve endings are responsible for sensing pain and temperature in our body.
Synonyms
9
4.1
A tiny part of the body that sends feelings like touch or pain to the brain
The small tip of a nerve that sends and receives signals
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally composes 'free' (not attached) with 'nerve ending' to denote a terminal part of a nerve that is not bound to a specialized receptor, so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer it is an unconnected nerve terminal. While the precise physiological function (pain/temperature detection) is technical, the basic referent is directly derivable from the parts and follows a regular adjectival modification pattern.
Etymology
Free nerve ending gives a simple picture: a nerve 'ending' that is free — not covered by a special cell — lying bare in the skin. These bare ends sense 'pain' and 'temperature', so the name explains why it means tiny nerve endings that detect those feelings.