navel

noun

1. The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of placental mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth.
2. The central part or point of anything; the middle.

   “Within the navel of this hideous wood, Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, Of Bacchus and Circe born, great Comus”

   “Sweeter than the muſk of Tatar, the morning breeze from the navel of every flower raviſhed perfume.”

   “We sat alfresco on the edge of a “square,” in reality a pond of cobbly mud with a plinth plonked in its navel […]”

3. A navel orange.

   “This contributed to a rapid rise in planted acreage in northern California, especially in navels, which are more suited to growing conditions there.”

4. (historical)An eye on the underside of a carronade for securing it to a carriage.

verb

1. (literary, poetic)To be in the middle of a landscape.

   “Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hills / So far, that the uprooting wind which tears / The oak from his foundation, and which spills / The ocean o’er its boundary, and bears / Its foam against the skies, reluctant spares / The oval mirror of thy glassy lake; […]”

   “Within the shade a ruined temple stands / To sight conspicuous, navelled in the pines, / Speaking of Grecian art, since Vandal hands / Defaced her structures, and despoiled her shrines.”

   “I rejoice as I call back those pleasant times, when in the casement of our seminary, I rested my telescope on my shut-up Virgil, and looked off among the far-off hills in the lap of which the edifice was naveled, and saw the pretty girls of the farm-houses, […]”

   “The crimson berry tree navelled upon this court / Twinkles a coded message, a wind-sun tingling chord, / Curious round her foot saunters one blue jay: […]”