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Brit. /
p
f
re
n/, U.S. /prfre()n/ Forms: lME perforacion, lME perforacioun, 15- perforation. [< Middle French, French perforation state of being pierced (1398 in medical context; also in Middle French as perforacion (second half of the 15th cent.)), action of piercing (15th cent. in medical context) and its etymon classical Latin perfor
ti
n-, perforti action of boring or drilling, in post-classical Latin also hole made by boring, especially in medical context, with reference to holes made by a physician through bone, and to holes made by disease (5th cent.) < perfort-, past participial stem of perforre PERFORATE v. + -i -ION suffix1. Compare Old Occitan perforacio (c1350; Occitan perforacion), Catalan perforació (15th cent.), Spanish perforación (15th cent., rare before the 19th cent.), Italian perforazione (c1350).]
1. A hole made by boring, punching, or piercing; (in later use) esp. each of a row of small holes punched in a sheet of paper, etc., so that a part may be torn off easily. Also: an aperture passing through or into something; a passage, shaft, or tunnel.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac
Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 23,
at perforacion or persyng [L.
perforatio]
at is made bi crafte is generatiue of virousnez & of felth & of fistle.
1543 B. TRAHERON tr. J. de Vigo
Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. II.
I. f. 241/1, For remotion of this aposteme, ye must make a new and larger perforation or borynge.
1599 A. M. tr. O. Gaebelkhover
Bk. Physicke 34/1 Inoculated Pearles, or Pearles without perforationes.
1665 R. HOOKE Micrographia 38 Pipes of Glass, with a very small perforation.
1744 Philos. Trans. 1740-41 (Royal Soc.)
41 644 A very small hollow Needle with Perforations, as in that used by some instead of the Trocar.
1783 P. POTT Chirurg. Wks. II 18 They have no perforations or apertures.
1832 New-Eng. Mag. Sept. 223 The water..is obtained through perforations, made by boring from three to four hundred feet in depth.
1891 ‘P
HIL’
Penny Postage Jubilee 150 A simple perforation is that which the perforating machine has produced by punching the paper completely out, leaving a regular series of small round holes between each row of stamps.
1906 Times 10 Apr. 3/2 In some elections where the official mark was not a perforation, but a stamp, it had happened..that the voter's cross was placed inside that stamp.
1951 Gloss. Terms Plastics (B.S.I.) 34 It [
sc. a baffle] consists of a disc with a small central perforation.
2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 11 June 22/1 It [
sc. a machine] punched perforations in sheets of cards used by trucking companies at highway toll plazas.
2. a. The action of perforating; (in later use) esp. the making of a row of small holes in a sheet of paper, etc., so that a part may be torn off easily. Also: the fact or condition of being perforated.
a1500 (?
a1450)
Gesta Rom. (Harl. 7333) 10 Some tyme is suche holiyng and perforacion goode.
1610 J. GUILLIM Display of Heraldrie II. vii. 70 Piercing is a Penetration or Perforation of things that are of solid substance.
1626 BACON Sylva Sylvarum §500 The likeliest way [is] the perforation of the body of the tree in several places one above the other, and the filling of the holes [etc.].
1735 H. BROOKE Poet. Wks. (1792) II. 82 Tubes of nicest perforation bored, whose branching maze thro' every organ tends.
1836-41 W. T. BRANDE Man. Chem. (ed. 5) 269 The mechanical force..is shown by the perforation of paper.
1881 Nature 6 Oct. 548/1 Gun-cotton itself..merely shows signs of perforation like the card.
1910 Times 29 June 17/3 The messages had to be prepared by the perforation of the punched slip.
1992 Oil & Gas Jrnl. (Nexis) 20 July 120 The interbedding frequency factor for predicting the intervals in certain wells for perforation.
b. Med. The formation of a hole passing completely through a structure, as the wall of the stomach or intestine.
1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau
Frenche Chirurg. 30 b/1 The perforation of the artery tarrieth vncured and open.
1666 R. BOYLE Origine Formes & Qualities (1667) 16 Bloudy Fluxes occasion'd by the perforation of the Capillary Arteries.
1876 J. S. BRISTOWE Treat. Theory & Pract. Med. II. i. 222 Perforation of the bowel may occur in patients of all ages.
1882 Med. Temp. Jrnl. 51 108 If perforation should take place let me have large and repeated doses of opium
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 9 Sept. 18/2 Out of the 11 cases of foreign-body perforation of the gut, nine were caused by bones.
1992 Saudi Med. Jrnl. 12 527/1 The ‘prefill’ minimizes the risk of bowel perforation during subsequent cannula insertion.
3. Anat. and Zool. A small opening or orifice in a part of the body.
1578 J. BANISTER Hist. Man I. f. 16, In the head and scope of the scull are yet diuerse and sundry litle Perforations.
1615 H. CROOKE 
945 The first externall perforation..is called by a proper name, Meatus Auditorus, the hole of Hearing.
1688 R. BOYLE Disquis. Final Causes iv. 148 That admirable perforation of the uvea, which we call the pupil.
1793 M. BAILLIE Morbid Anat. xxiii. 283 The hymen is sometimes found without a perforation in it, so that the vagina is completely shut up at its external extremity.
1826 W. KIRBY & W. S
PENCE Introd. Entomol. III. xxxiv. 511 In considering the insertion of antennæ..we must advert first to the orifice (Torulus) that receives them. This is a perforation of the crust of the head.
1902 Amer. Naturalist 36 383 In transverse sections through the frontal depression the median slit is seen to be a true perforation of the shell.
1946 H. W
OODS Palæontol. Invertebr. (ed. 8) 130 The genital plates..are usually provided with a perforation which serves as the opening for the genital ducts.
1998 L. M
ARGULIS & K. V. S
CHWARTZ Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) iii. 324/1 The water passes out of the pharynx through these pharyngeal perforations.
COMPOUNDS
C1. 
perforation sound n. Obs.
1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 788 On inflation, air passes into the tympanum without *perforation sound.
C2. perforation gauge n. Philately a gauge for ascertaining the coarseness or fineness of the perforations of a stamp (usually expressed as the number of perforations in two centimetres).
1882 Stamp News Mar. 24/1 (advt.) Now ready. The improved *Perforation Gauge. Centimetre and Inch-scale combined... The Gauge measures perforations rising by halves, from 7 to 16. 1940 Amer. Boy Feb. 25/1 (advt.) U.S. $1, $2, $4 and $5 stamps included in our packet of 25 different United States Stamps... Perforation Gauge and Millimeter Scale also included. 2002 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 11 Dec. 24 He carries all the normal accessories like stamp books and magazines including magnifying glasses and perforation gauges.
perforation plate n. Bot. (in a xylem vessel) a perforated area in the common wall of adjacent vessel members, allowing the passage of water and solutes between them.
1933 Trop. Woods 36 7 *
Perforation plate, a term of convenience for the area of the wall (originally imperforate) involved in the coalescence of two members of a vessel.
1953 K. ESAU Plant Anat. xi. 223 The perforations of vessel members commonly occur on the end walls, but they may be present on the lateral walls too. The wall bearing the perforation is called the perforation plate.
1998 Jrnl. Torrey Bot. Soc 125 265/1 All vessels have simple perforation plates.
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