anfracture

plural anfractures

1. obsoleteA mazy winding.

   The hair and mucus found in the multiplicity of anfractures which help to constitute the nasal anatomy purify the air, which comes more or less charged with fine particles of dust and other irritable matter

   1895 February, “Harmful Habits”, in The Musical Record, number 297, page 8

   2 more examples

   But that these Trochisks may be right made, the whitest and light pulp of Coloquintida must be selected, and not onely incided, put pulverated small: being crass, and introsumed, it moves the Dysentery, and abrades the intestines from such portions as are contained in its gyres and anfractures.

   1657, Jean de Renou, A Medicinal Dispensatory, page 576

   In some of the saloons and galleries which surround the celebrated "Court of Lions," we still see colors, applied formerly by the Arabs in the anfractures of the arabesque figures, remaining in all their integrity .

   1852, J. Persoz, Ed. Collomb, “Of the Chemical Composition of Fragments of Colors Collected from the Arab Paintings of the Fifteenth Century, of the Alhambra, At Grenada”, in The Chemist: A Monthly Journal of Chemical Philosophy, page 359

2. A fissure or cavity that traces an irregular path.

   At each anfracture, one could see climbing plants or palms, trees and lianas.

   1996, Francis Garnier, Travels in Cambodia and part of Laos, page 229

   4 more examples

   Who would have thought that in the anfractures of the rocks, in nooks where the sun had never penetrated, one would find rhododendrons, heath, mimosas, crocuses, jasmine, Chinese primroses, and laurel-thyme?

   1904, Paul de Kock, Madame Pantalon, page 197

   Retracing our steps a little, we go down through the woods by a winding path to Saint-Berthevin's Pulpit, a little chapel consecrated to that saint and situated in an anfracture of the rock and placed just under the plateau where we were standing a few minutes ago.

   1919, Syndicat d'initiative, Laval and its neighbourhood, page 48

   The sly machinations of the ocean had been defeated; the demons that dwell far down in the worm-eaten anfractures of the island caves were foiled .

   1932, Sir Ronald Ross ·, The Child of Ocean, page 262

   To be noted also the presence of the Conus miles hidden in the madreporic anfractures of the intercotidal zone , and which remain dry for a few hours during the low tide .

   1972, La Conchiglia - Volume 4