tear duct
5
3.2
- noun
- /tɪr dʌkt/
- Specialized
:
conducto lagrimal
- Breast milk was useful in clearing the discharges that collected in infants' eyes before the tear ducts began to work properly.
- tear duct is blocked
- tear ducts work
- dry up tear ducts
You'll form icicles in your tear ducts and in your mouth.
- You'll form icicles in your tear ducts and in your mouth.
- It's a really pretty Sheen shimmer and just a little pop like right where my tear duct is.
Examples
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Isaiah got hit so hard once in a helmet-to-helmet hit that it caused a fracturing of the skull, just behind his face, causing internal bleeding to exit out his tear ducts.
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There is pain above my right eye, between my eyebrow and the tear duct.
Academic text (1996) -
And take it down a bit into your tear duct like that.
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Just kind of bring that in onto my tear duct as well.
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We should have been checking his tear ducts every week.
Academic text (2007) -
So we're just going to highlight the tear duct area here.
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Apply it near the tear ducts and on the ball of your eyelids.
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Tear ducts operate on a normal basis to lubricate and protect the eye.
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An otherwise healthy 79-year-old woman underwent left dacryocystorhinostomy for a tumor blocking the left tear duct in August 1989.
Academic text (1995) -
The child incurred permanent damage to a tear duct in her left eye.
Synonyms
A small tube that carries tears from the tear gland to the eye surface
A small tube that carries tears from the tear gland to the eye surface
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and literally compositional: a 'duct' (a hollow channel) that conveys 'tears' (drops from the lacrimal glands), so the phrase denotes a tube for tears. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common compound and a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Tear duct gives a simple picture: a small tube, a duct, that carries your tear from the eye into the nose. So, the name explains why a blocked tear duct makes your eye water.