stirrup
/ˈstɪrəp
/noun
1Each of a pair of devices attached to each side of a horse’s saddle, in the form of a loop with a flat base to support the rider’s foot.Will slid his foot up into the stirrup of the horse's saddle and prepared to pull himself up....
- Other safety items are available that can be attached to reins, stirrups and martingales, as well as fluorescent saddlecloths and exercise rugs.
- She smirked as he rose to a seat with the help of his horse and the saddle stirrup.
2 (stirrups or lithotomy stirrups) A pair of metal supports in which a woman’s ankles may be placed during gynaecological examinations and childbirth, to hold her legs in a position which will facilitate medical examination or intervention.A well-padded leg holder for the nonsurgical leg, such as a low lithotomy stirrup, is needed to prevent unnecessary pressure on muscles and bony prominences....
- Pressure on the peroneal nerve by lithotomy stirrups may result in paraesthesia and foot drop.
- Femoral nerve injury is usually believed to be caused by prolonged position in the lithotomy stirrups leading to partial eschemia from kinking as the nerve passes under the inguinal ligament.
3 (also stirrup bone) another term for stapes.There they became the anvil and the hammer, minute bones that transmit sound from the eardrum to the stirrup bone and, ultimately, to the inner ear....
- The stirrup bone exerts pressure at the oval window of the inner ear, further increasing the sound energy up to fifteen times.
- Reptiles have a single ear ossicle, the stapes or stirrup bone.
Origin
Old English stigrāp, from the Germanic base of obsolete sty 'climb' + rope.