Meâtus, huius meátus, pen. prod. m. g. Plin. A passage: a way.Bifido meatu diuisus Rhenus. Claud. Meatus etiam dicuntur, quos Græci poros vocant in corpore. Plin. The poores in the body. Meatus siderum. Plin, The course of the startes.Cœli meatus.Virg.Solis cursus, Lunæque meatus. Lucret.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
mĕātus, ūs, m. [id.], a going, passing, motion, course (poet. and post-Aug.). I.Lit.: solis lunaeque meatus, Lucr. 1, 128: caeli, Verg. A. 6, 850: aquilae,
flight
, Tac. H. 1, 62: spiritus, i. e.
the breathing, respiration
, Quint. 7, 10, 10: animae, Plin. Ep. 6, 16, 13.—II.Transf., concr., a way, path, passage, Val. Fl. 3, 403: meatum vomiticnibus praeparare, Plin. 19, 5, 26, 85: spirandi, id. 28, 13, 55, 197: cur signa meatus Deseruere suos, left their paths, i. e. became darkened, eclipsed, Luc. 1, 664: Danubius in Ponticum sex meatibus erumpit,
discharges itself through six channels
, Tac. G. 1; cf.: bifido meatu divisus Rhenus,
divided into two channels
, Claud. B. G. 336. —B.The avenues of sensation in the body: homo septem meatus habet in capite, duos oculos, etc., Mart. Cap. 7, 739.