CAUL

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does caul mean? 

• CAUL (noun)
  The noun CAUL has 2 senses:

1. part of the peritoneum attached to the stomach and to the colon and covering the intestines

2. the inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)

  Familiarity information: CAUL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAUL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Part of the peritoneum attached to the stomach and to the colon and covering the intestines

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

caul; gastrocolic omentum; greater omentum

Hypernyms ("caul" is a kind of...):

omentum (a fold of peritoneum supporting the viscera)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The inner membrane of embryos in higher vertebrates (especially when covering the head at birth)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

caul; embryonic membrane; veil

Hypernyms ("caul" is a kind of...):

fetal membrane (any membrane that functions for the protection or nourishment or respiration or excretion of a developing fetus)

Holonyms ("caul" is a part of...):

placenta (the vascular structure in the uterus of most mammals providing oxygen and nutrients for and transferring wastes from the developing fetus)

 Context examples 

I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The caul was won, I recollect, by an old lady with a hand-basket, who, very reluctantly, produced from it the stipulated five shillings, all in halfpence, and twopence halfpenny short—as it took an immense time and a great waste of arithmetic, to endeavour without any effect to prove to her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Consequently the advertisement was withdrawn at a dead loss—for as to sherry, my poor dear mother's own sherry was in the market then—and ten years afterwards, the caul was put up in a raffle down in our part of the country, to fifty members at half-a-crown a head, the winner to spend five shillings.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)