intestine

noun

1. The alimentary canal of an animal through which food passes after having passed all stomachs.
2. One of certain subdivisions of this part of the alimentary canal, such as the small or large intestine in human beings.

adj

1. (not-comparable, obsolete)Domestic; taking place within a given country or region.

   “Hoping here to end / Intestine war in heaven, the arch foe subdued.”

   “It being true that now after fiue yeeres intestine warre with the reuengefull implacable Indians, a firme peace (not againe easily to be broken) hath bin lately concluded[…].”

   “[W]riters ſhould ceaſe from inteſtine hoſtilities; and, inſtead of ſacrificing each other to malice and contempt, endeavour to avert perſecution from the meaneſt of their fraternity.”

   “Yet the success of Trajan, however transient, was rapid and specious. The degenerate Parthians, broken by intestine discord, fled before his arms.”

   “[…] surrounded by an enemy rendered desperate from the calamities of intestine war.”

2. (not-comparable, obsolete)Internal.

   “a perpetual intestine struggle[…]between authority and liberty”

   “If you wish this state to be immortal, if you wish your empire to be eternal, if you with your glory to continue everlasting, then it is our own passions, it is the turbulence and desire of revolution engendered among our own citizens, it is intestine evil, it is domestic plots that must be guarded against.”

3. (not-comparable, obsolete, rare)Depending upon the internal constitution of a body or entity; subjective.

   “When you have alleaged all the reasons you can, and beleeved all to disavow and reject her, she produceth, contrarie to your discourses, so intestine inclination, that you have small hold against her.”

   “Every thing labours under an intestine necessity.”

   “There dwells in the hearts of all who are deeply sunk in hypocrisy, an intestine hatred against all who are truly spiritual;”

4. (not-comparable, obsolete, rare)Shut up; enclosed.

   “No thunders shook with deep intestine sound The blooming groves that girdled her around.”

   “Where now the vital energy that moved, While summer was, the pure and subtle lymph Through the imperceptible meandering veins Of leaf and flower? It sleeps; and the icy touch Of unprolific winter has impress'd A cold stagnation on the intestine tide.”

   “(see title)”

   “Lambarde's metaphor seems to be slipping here, as he admits that the worst enemies are 'intestine', within the walls, so to speak, or even within the 'body' of the nation.”