depressed fracture
1
7.9
- noun
- /dɪˈprɛst ˈfræktʃər/
- Specialized
:
fractura hundida
- When the young woman was hit, the stone or lead missile crushed the soft tissues of her scalp and caused a serious depressed fracture, possibly with the projectile embedded in the bone.
- depressed fractures of the skull
Examples
-
The doctor explained that she had a depressed fracture of the skull after the accident.
-
Blow came from an object roughly rectangular in shape, resulting in a depressed fracture of the parietal bone, with radiating linear fractures extending outward from the point of impact.
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After the injury, the scans revealed a depressed fracture on the left side of his skull.
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The trauma specialist identified a depressed fracture, indicating that a bone fragment was pushed in toward the brain.
Synonyms
364
4.1
A break in something hard like a bone or rock
1
7.3
A broken bone where one end is pushed into the other
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is transparently built from 'depressed' (pressed in/flattened downward) + 'fracture' (a break). A B1 learner who knows those words can reasonably infer a break where part of the bone is pushed inward toward the brain; it is a literal, compositional medical description rather than an idiom.
Etymology
Depressed fracture shows the literal image of a skull fracture where a piece of bone is depressed, or 'pushed in', like a dent in the head. That's why it means a 'fracture' in which the bone is pushed inward toward the brain.