dehisce

intr.v., -hisced, -hisc·ing, -hisc·es.

1. Botany. To open at definite places, discharging seeds, pollen, or other contents, as the ripe capsules or pods of some plants.
2. Medicine. To rupture or break open, as a surgical wound.

[Latin dehīscere : dē-, de- + hīscere, to split, inchoative of hiāre, to be open.]

(di-HIS)

verb intr.
1. To burst open, as the pod of a plant.
2. To gape.

Etymology
When a peapod is ripe after a long wait and bursts open, it's yawning, etymologically speaking. The term dehisce comes from Latin dehiscere (to split open), from hiscere (to gape, yawn), from Latin hiare (to yawn). Another term that derives from the same root is hiatus

Usage
"Garrison Keillor: Rhubarb is a vegetable, no matter what the government says: a member of the buckwheat family of herbaceous plants including buckwheat, dock and smartweed, which are characterized by having swollen joints, simple leaves, small petalless flowers and small, dry, indehiscent fruit. Indehiscent means 'not dehiscent,' not opening at maturity to release the seed. So "indehiscent" means 'hard, dry, holding onto the seed,' which actually describes Norwegians quite well. Most Norwegians consider dehiscence to be indecent. They hold the seed in. But rhubarb pie comes along in the spring, when we're half crazed from five months of winter -- it's the first fresh vegetable we get, and it makes us dehisce." — Carol Stocker; Rediscovering Rhubarb; Boston Globe; May 16, 1996.

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(dĭ-hĭs')
v., -hisced, -hisc·ing, -hisc·es.

To rupture or break open, as a surgical wound.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The verb has one meaning:

Meaning #1: burst or split open, as of flowers and seeds when releasing pollen or seeds

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