n. [ OE. lunge, AS. lunge, pl. lungen; akin to D. long, G. lunge, Icel. & Sw. lunga, Dan. lunge, all prob. from the root of E. light. √125. See Light not heavy. ] (Anat.) An organ for aërial respiration; -- commonly in the plural. [ 1913 Webster ]
My lungs began to crow
like chanticleer. Shak.
[ 1913 Webster ]
☞ In all air-breathing vertebrates the lungs are developed from the ventral wall of the esophagus as a pouch which divides into two sacs. In amphibians and many reptiles the lungs retain very nearly this primitive saclike character, but in the higher forms the connection with the esophagus becomes elongated into the windpipe and the inner walls of the sacs become more and more divided, until, in the mammals, the air spaces become minutely divided into tubes ending in small air cells, in the walls of which the blood circulates in a fine network of capillaries. In mammals the lungs are more or less divided into lobes, and each lung occupies a separate cavity in the thorax. See Respiration. [ 1913 Webster ]
Lung fever (Med.),
Lung flower (Bot.),
Lung lichen (Bot.),
Lung sac (Zool.),
v. i.
n. (Zool.) Same as Namaycush. [ 1913 Webster ]
v. t. To cause to go round in a ring, as a horse, while holding his halter. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. [ Also spelt longe, fr. allonge. See Allonge, Long. ] A sudden thrust or pass, as with a sword. [ 1913 Webster ]
a. Having lungs, or breathing organs similar to lungs. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. a person with pulmonary tuberculosis. [ informal ]
n. (Zool.) Any fish belonging to the Dipnoi; -- so called because they have both lungs and gills. [ 1913 Webster ]
a. (Med.) Having lungs that adhere to the pleura. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. (Zool.) A guillemot.