jugular

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   one of the large veins in the neck that carry blood from the head back toward the heart

   The punctures lay just above the external jugular.

2. 2
   adj

   relating to or situated in the neck or throat, especially a jugular vein

   The surgeon monitored the patient's jugular blood flow.

3. 3
   noun

   a vital or especially vulnerable point, as in the phrase go for the jugular

   The prosecutor went for the jugular by challenging the witness's central claim.

Borrowed in the late sixteenth century from Late Latin jugularis, from Latin jugulum ("throat, neck") + -aris. The figurative sense treats the jugular vein as a vulnerable target whose injury may be fatal, giving rise to the idiom go for the jugular.

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