Definition of rostrum

• n. - The beak or head of a ship.
• n. - The Beaks; the stage or platform in the forum where orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, etc., were delivered; -- so called because after the Latin war, it was adorned with the beaks of captured vessels; later, applied also to other platforms erected in Rome for the use of public orators.
• n. - Hence, a stage for public speaking; the pulpit or platform occupied by an orator or public speaker.
• n. - Any beaklike prolongation, esp. of the head of an animal, as the beak of birds.
• n. - The beak, or sucking mouth parts, of Hemiptera.
• n. - The snout of a gastropod mollusk. See Illust. of Littorina.
• n. - The anterior, often spinelike, prolongation of the carapace of a crustacean, as in the lobster and the prawn.
• n. - Same as Rostellum.
• n. - The pipe to convey the distilling liquor into its receiver in the common alembic.
• n. - A pair of forceps of various kinds, having a beaklike form.