obturation

English

Etymology

From Latin obturare (“to stop up”): compare French obturation.

Noun

obturation (countable and uncountable, plural obturations)

1. The act of stopping up, or closing, an opening.
   • 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:

     Deaf by an outward obturation.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     None of Mr. Knott's gestures could be called characteristic, unless perhaps that which consisted in the simultaneous obturation of the facial cavities, the thumbs in the mouth, the forefingers in the ears, the little fingers in the nostrils, the third fingers in the eyes and the second fingers, free in a crisis to promote intellection, laid along the temples.

2. (firearms) The process of a bullet expanding under pressure to fit the bore of the firearm, or a cartridge case expanding under pressure to seal the chamber.

Related terms

• obturate
• obturative

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔp.ty.ʁa.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

obturation f (plural obturations)

1. sealing; closing up
2. blockage
3. a dental filling

Derived terms

• vitesse d’obturation

Further reading

• “obturation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.