PERIPHERAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Peripheral

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/pərˈɪfərəl/ /pərˈɪfrəl/ Listen

adjective

Peripheral adj.

Of or pertaining to a periphery; constituting a periphery; peripheric.

(Anat.) External; away from the center; on or near the surface; as, the peripheral portion of the nervous system.

Pertaining to minor, unimportant, superficial, or irrelevant aspects of the matter in question; as, peripheral isssues are dealt with in the appendix.

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Etymology of 'Peripheral'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Peripheral" Quotes from Famous Books

... establishment of the identity of the reactions of animals and plants to light proved the untenability of this view and at the same time offered a different conception of reflexes. The flight of the moth into the flame is a typical reflex process. The light stimulates the peripheral sense organs, the stimulus passes to the central nervous system, and from there to the muscles of the wings, and the moth is caused to fly into the flame. This reflex process agrees in every point with the heliotropic effects of light on plant organs. Since plants possess ...

— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... secrete specialized substances which aid in determining menstruation; and that in a less degree the utricular glands and the glands of the Fallopian tubes share in this action. He considers that this is probably secondary to the chain of peripheral irritation from the uterine glands, but that this secretion is none the less an essential feature ...

— The Four Epochs of Woman's Life • Anna M. Galbraith

... veins of this plexus discharge themselves in two directions: (1) By a central canal or canals running along the bottom of the lateral lacunae of the plantar cushion to gain the deep layer of the coronary plexus. (2) By the Circumflex or Peripheral Vein of the Toe, a canal formed by ramifications from the solar and the podophyllous plexuses, and following the direction of the artery of the same name. The circumflex vein terminates by forwarding branches to concur in the formation ...

— Diseases of the Horse's Foot • Harry Caulton Reeks

... corps. Its consequence would be to stereotype the thinking faculties of a professional whose inner power flows from the questing imagination, eager curiosity and versatility of its individuals. Intense specialization, to the exclusion of all peripheral areas of knowledge, warps the mind and limits the useful action and influence of its owner. Dr. Vannevar Bush was a greater scientist on the day he made his decision to explore the sphere of military knowledge, and greater still when ...

— The Armed Forces Officer - Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2 • U. S. Department of Defense

... who can realize this so vividly as the scientific philosopher? For our knowledge being, according to the familiar comparison, like a brilliant sphere, the more we increase it the greater becomes the number of peripheral points at which we are confronted by the impenetrable darkness beyond. I believe that this restless yearning,—vague enough in the description, yet recognizable by all who, communing with themselves or with nature, have felt it,—this constant seeking for what cannot be found, this ...

— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske