stirrup (redirected from lithotomy stirrups)

stirrup, foot support for the rider of a horse in mounting and while riding. It is a ring with a horizontal bar to receive the foot and is attached by a strap to the saddle. To avoid the danger of having a foot caught in a stirrup if the rider is thrown, large stirrups are often used; one of the uses of the stirrup cover or stirrup hood is to prevent the foot from entering too far and getting caught; the same purpose is served by the high heels of the cowboy's boots. There is some evidence that stirrups were used in Assyria c.850 B.C. and in China as early as the Han dynasty, 202 B.C.–A.D. 220. Stirrups are not known to have been used in Europe before the raids of the Huns under Attila in the mid-5th cent.; probably they had their origin in central Asia.

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stirrup

1. either of two metal loops on a riding saddle, with a flat footpiece through which a rider puts his foot for support. They are attached to the saddle by stirrup leathers

2. Nautical one of a set of ropes fastened to a yard at one end and having a thimble at the other through which a footrope is rove for support

3. the usual US name for étrier

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stirrup [′stər·əp]

(civil engineering)

In concrete construction, a U-shaped bar which is anchored perpendicular to the longitudinal steel as reinforcement to resist shear.

(mining engineering)

A piece of steel hung from a gallows frame to engage the endgate hooks when a mine car is tilted over; used at dumps.

A screw joint suspended from the brakestaff of a spring pole, by which the boring rods are adjusted to the depth of the borehole. Also known as temper screw.