orifice

From Middle French, from Old French, from Late Latin ōrificium (“an opening, literally the making of a mouth”), compound of ōs (“mouth”) + faciō (“to make”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒɹɪfɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔɹəfɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

orifice (plural orifices)

1. A mouth or aperture, such as of a tube, pipe, etc.; an opening.

   the orifice of an artery or vein; the orifice of a wound; the vagina and other orifices

   • 2004, Diana T. Meyers, Being Yourself: Essays on Identity, Action, and Social Life, page 86:

     For example, cultures that scorn open orifices of all kinds despise uninfibulated female genitals too […]

   • 2015 October 22, “Diversity and Systematics of Schizomavella Species (Bryozoa: Bitectiporidae) from the Bathyal NE Atlantic”, in PLOS ONE‎, →DOI:

     As none of the ovicells were observed to be closed by the operculum, presumably because they were empty and the opercula were resting on the primary orifice rim, the ovicell closure type is subcleithral rather than cleithral [51 ], at least in some species of the genus.

2. (slang, derogatory) A stupid or objectionable person.
   • 2016, Niels Saunders, Mervyn Vs. Dennis:

     “Peanuts aren't nuts, you orifice. They're legumes.”

• external urethral orifice

• (stupid or objectionable person): Tony Thorne (2014) “orifice”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  : Bloomsbury

From Late Latin ōrificium.

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.ʁi.fis/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -is

orifice m (plural orifices)

1. orifice

• “orifice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.