constrictor
/kənˈstrɪktə
/noun
1A snake that kills by coiling round its prey and asphyxiating it.
- Families Boidae and Pythonidae, and some members of other families (in particular Colubridae).
- But constrictors eat prey that is too big, animals that could do the snake harm.
- Asphyxiation was long thought to be the cause of death of constrictors' prey, but recent studies have found that death occurs far too rapidly (in about four minutes) for it to be that alone.
2 (also constrictor muscle) Anatomy A muscle whose contraction narrows a vessel or passage.The constrictor muscle is supplied by the parasympathetic nervous system, and the dilator by the sympathetic nervous system....
- The more inferior fibers arch distally deep to the middle constrictor muscle.
- The tonsillar capsule was dissected away from the underlying superior constrictor muscle with the dissection continued along the anterior tonsillar pillar towards the posterior tonsillar pillar (open book technique).
2.1Each of the muscles which constrict the pharynx.The muscular walls of the pharynx constitute three overlapping sheets of striated muscle, the pharyngeal constrictors....
- Included are those fibers joining the inferior constrictor of the pharynx to the thyroid gland.
- The muscular wall of the pharynx can be divided into three overlapping segments of striated muscle, termed the pharyngeal constrictors.
Origin
Early 18th century: modern Latin, from constrict- 'bound tightly together', from the verb constringere (see constrain).