1. To open in definite places: Some plants dehisce or discharge seeds, pollen, or other contents, as the bursting of ripe capsules.
2. To rupture or to break open, as a surgical wound: A surgical wound may partially or completely dehisce after surgery, depending upon whether some or all of the layers of tissue come open.
3. Etymology: from Latin dehiscere, "to split open", and from hiscere, "to gape, to yawn"; from Latin hiare, "to yawn".