shoulder blade

noun

plural shoulder blades

: either of a pair of large, flat, triangular-shaped bones that lie above the rib cage on either side of the upper back : scapula

a fractured shoulder blade

He has a wing-shaped tribal tattoo between his shoulder blades.

—Cliff Mehrtens

… types who didn't wash and grew hair to their shoulder blades.

—Curtis W. Casewit

Examples of shoulder blade in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As Isaac Shultz of Gizmodo reports, the shoulder blade contains a puncture word that’s embedded with a bone fragment from Apex’s own tail. —Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Dec. 2024

The backstrap is a super lean and tender strip of meat that runs along a deer’s spine, stretching from the shoulder blades to the last vertebra. —Alice Jones Webb, Outdoor Life, 5 Dec. 2024

Using a syringe, the microchips – which are about the size of a large grain of rice – are placed under an animal’s skin, usually at the back of the neck, between the shoulder blades. —Ella McCarthy, Austin American-Statesman, 26 Sep. 2024

The man, his clothes dusty and his arms streaked with red, had a broken shoulder blade and a punctured lung. —Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

shoulder blade

noun

: the flat triangular bone of the back of the shoulder that forms a joint with the humerus of the upper arm

called also scapula

Medical Definition

shoulder blade

noun

: scapula