false rib

noun

, Anatomy.

1. any of the lower five ribs on either side of the body, which are not directly attached to the sternum.

Word History and Origins

Origin of false rib¹

First recorded in 1490–1500

Example Sentences

My ball had entered his body by the seventh rib on the right hand, and had gone out by the second false rib on the left.

From Project Gutenberg

"In the right side, my lord; but, fortunately, towards the lower false rib."

From Project Gutenberg

We have long been derided and scoffed at for making connubialism marketable, and putting a price on a wife's infidelity, but it strikes me this is something worse; for what, after all, is a rib—a false rib, too—compared with the whole bony skeleton?

From Project Gutenberg

I discovered that the ball struck the second or third false rib, and fractured it about in the middle; it then passed through the liver and diaphragm, and, as far as we could ascertain without a minute examination, lodged in the first or second lumbar vertebra.

From Project Gutenberg

I discovered that the ball struck the second or third false rib, and fractured it about in the middle; it then passed through the liver and diaphragm, and, as far as we could ascertain without a minute examination, lodged in the first or second lumbar vertebra.

From Project Gutenberg