‖ (Med.) [ L., cleft spine. ] A congenital malformation in which the spinal column is cleft at its lower portion, and the membranes of the spinal cord project as an elastic swelling from the gap thus formed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Bot.) Of, pertaining to, or resembling, the plant spinach, or the family of plants to which it belongs. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a beet lacking a swollen root; it is grown as a vegetable for its edible leaves and stalks.
Syn. -- chard, Swiss chard, spinach beet, leaf beet, chard plant, Beta vulgaris cicla. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. a plant with long succulent whitish stalks with large green leaves.
Syn. -- chard, Swiss chard, spinach beet, leaf beet. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a disease of spinach plants. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

{ } n. [ OF. espinache, espinoche, F. épinard; cf. F. spinace, Sp. espinaca; all fr. Ar. isfānāj, isfināj, aspanākh, probably of Persian origin. ] (Bot.) A common pot herb (Spinacia oleracea) belonging to the Goosefoot family. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mountain spinach. See Garden orache, under Orache. --
New Zealand spinach (Bot.), a coarse herb (Tetragonia expansa), a poor substitute for spinach. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Various other pot herbs are locally called spinach. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. spinalis, fr. spina the spine: cf. F. spinal. See Spine. ] 1. (Anat.) Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the backbone, or vertebral column; rachidian; vertebral. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Of or pertaining to a spine or spines. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spinal accessory nerves, the eleventh pair of cranial nerves in the higher vertebrates. They originate from the spinal cord and pass forward into the skull, from which they emerge in company with the pneumogastrics. --
Spinal column, the backbone, or connected series or vertebrae which forms the axis of the vertebrate skeleton; the spine; rachis; vertebral column. --
Spinal cord, the great nervous cord extending backward from the brain along the dorsal side of the spinal column of a vertebrate animal, and usually terminating in a threadlike appendage called the filum terminale; the spinal, or vertebral, marrow; the myelon. The nervous tissue consists of nerve fibers and nerve cells, the latter being confined to the so-called gray matter of the central portions of the cord, while the peripheral white matter is composed of nerve fibers only. The center of the cord is traversed by a slender canal connecting with the ventricles of the brain. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Bearing a spine; spiniform. [ 1913 Webster ]