Splint

Origin

Middle English, from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch

Full definition of splint

Noun

1. A narrow strip of wood split or peeled off of a larger piece.
2. (medicine) A device to immobilize a body part.1900 But it so happened that I had a man in the hospital at the time, and going there to see about him the day before the opening of the Inquiry, I saw in the white men's ward that little chap tossing on his back, with his arm in splints, and quite light-headed. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Chapter 5.
3. A dental device applied consequent to undergoing orthodontia.
4. A segment of armor.1819 The fore-part of his thighs, where the folds of his mantle permitted them to be seen, were also covered with linked mail; the knees and feet were defended by splints , or thin plates of steel, ingeniously jointed upon each other; and mail hose, reaching from the ankle to the knee, effectually protected the legs, and completed the rider's defensive armour. — Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 1.
5. A bone found on either side of the horse's cannon bone; second or fourth metacarpal (forelimb) or metatarsal (hindlimb) bone.
6. A disease affecting the splint bones, as a callosity or hard excrescence.
7. splent coal

Usage notes

For a horse to pop a splint is for it to receive an injury to the splint bone or surrounding area.

Derived terms

• shin splint

Verb

1. (transitive) To apply a splint to; to fasten with splints.
2. To support one's abdomen with hands or a pillow before attempting to cough.
3. (obsolete, rare, transitive) To split into thin, slender pieces; to splinter.