See Also: Oral(medicine)
oral(dictionary)
Oral(money)
Oral(health)
oral sex(dictionary)
ORAL(law)
oral mucosa(medicine)
oral surgery(medicine)
oral membrane(medicine)
oral teeth(medicine)

oral (iou)



oral adjective & noun. E17.
[Late Latin oralis, from Latin or-, os mouth: see -AL1.]
A. adjective.
Uttered or communicated in spoken words; conducted by word of mouth; spoken, verbal; spec. (of verse etc.) delivered or transmitted verbally, of or pertaining to such verse etc. E17.
H. Belloc Fragments preserved by oral tradition. H. A. L. Fisher Information..derived from oral sources only was..fragmentary.
a. Done or performed with or by the mouth as the organ of eating and drinking, spec. with ref. to the Eucharist. rare. E17.
b. (Of medication etc.) administered or taken through the mouth; involving such administration. M20.
J. H. Burn Ring worm..responds well to oral treatment with antibiotic Griseofulvin. W. J. Burley A sachet of oral contraceptives.
Of or pertaining to the mouth, as a part of the body. M17.
Designating or involving sexual activity in which the genitals of one partner are stimulated by the mouth of the other. Cf. CUNNILINGUS, FELLATIO. L19.
S. Fisher Most of the women..received manual and often oral stimulation of the clitoral region.
Psychoanalysis. Of or concerning a supposed stage of infantile psychosexual development in which the mouth is the main focus of energy and feeling. E20.
Phonetics. Of a sound: articulated with the velum raised, so that there is no nasal resonance. E20.
Special collocations & comb.: oral-formulaic adjective of or pertaining to (usu. early) poetry belonging to a spoken tradition characterized by the use of poetic formulae. oral history (a collection of) tape-recorded historical information drawn from the speaker's personal knowledge; the use or interpretation of this as an academic subject. Oral Law the part of Jewish religious law believed to have been passed down by oral tradition before being collected in the Mishnah.
b. absol. as noun.
Phonetics. An oral sound. L19.
An oral examination or test. L19.
L. Appignanesi Following the written part there would be an oral.
oralism noun a method of instructing deaf mutes by ordinary speech and lip-reading, instead of by sign language L19.
oralist noun (a) rare an expert in oral delivery; (b) a person who teaches deaf mutes by oralism: M19.
orally adverb by, through, or with the mouth E17.