Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Stigma?

\Stig"ma\, n.; pl. E. {Stigmas}, L. {Stigmata}. [L., a mark, a brand, from Gr. ?, ?, the prick or mark of a pointed instrument, a spot, mark, from ? to prick, to brand. See {Stick}, v. t.] 1. A mark made with a burning iron; a brand. 2. Any mark of infamy or disgrace; sign of moral blemish; stain or reproach caused by dishonorable conduct; reproachful characterization. The blackest stigma that can be fastened upon him. --Bp. Hall. All such slaughters were from thence called Bartelmies, simply in a perpetual stigma of that butchery. --Sir G. Buck. 3. (Bot.) That part of a pistil which has no epidermis, and is fitted to receive the pollen. It is usually the terminal portion, and is commonly somewhat glutinous or viscid. See Illust. of {Stamen} and of {Flower}. 4. (Anat.) A small spot, mark, scar, or a minute hole; -- applied especially to a spot on the outer surface of a Graafian follicle, and to spots of intercellular substance in scaly epithelium, or to minute holes in such spots. 5. (Pathol.) A red speck upon the skin, produced either by the extravasation of blood, as in the bloody sweat characteristic of certain varieties of religious ecstasy, or by capillary congestion, as in the case of drunkards. 6. (Zo["o]l.) (a) One of the external openings of the trache[ae] of insects, myriapods, and other arthropods; a spiracle. (b) One of the apertures of the pulmonary sacs of arachnids. See Illust. of {Scorpion}. (c) One of the apertures of the gill of an ascidian, and of Amphioxus. 7. (Geom.) A point so connected by any law whatever with another point, called an index, that as the index moves in any manner in a plane the first point or stigma moves in a determinate way in the same plane. 8. pl. (R. C. Ch.) Marks believed to have been supernaturally impressed upon the bodies of certain persons in imitation of the wounds on the crucified body of Christ. See def. 5, above.