Definition of "metacarpus" []

• The part of the human hand that includes the five bones between the fingers and the wrist. (noun)
• The corresponding part of the forefoot of a quadruped. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Select the wing on the side of the body farthest from the cut, and enter the point of one of the thickest wires in the wing at the end of the part called the "metacarpus" (i, Plate II); push it gently along between the bone and the skin -- meanwhile holding the wing with the left-hand fingers -- along the side of or between the "radius and ulna," finally pushing it into the body at the shoulder, and clenching it when it comes through, which it should do under the opposite wing at the cut."
• "Those neck ribs are gone or reduced, they have a long metacarpus and short tails, and they've greatly reduced the cruropatagium."
• "They tend to have relatively short skulls with several distinct openings, long cervical (neck) ribs, a short metacarpus (like the palm or sole of the foot), a long tail (with some exceptions), and an expanded flight membrane suspended between the hind limbs, called the cruropatagium."