Definition of "spica" [spica]

• A bandage applied in overlapping opposite spirals to immobilize a digit or limb. (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.

• "The ear of wheat, (in Latin spica, obsoletely speca, from spe, hope,) should not be the only hope of the husbandman; its kernel or grain (ranum, from erendo, bearing,) is not all that it bears."
• "The ear of wheat (in Latin spica, obsoletely speca, from spe, hope) should not be the only hope of the husbandman; its kernel or grain (granum from gerendo, bearing) is not all that it bears."
• "The figure-of-eight bandage is used on various parts, and is illustrated in the bandage called spica of the groin, Fig. IV, p. 132."