glabrous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of glabrous
1630–40; < Latin glabr- (stem of glaber ) smooth, hairless + -ous
Explanation
The term glabrous describes surfaces that are smooth and free of hair, fur, or other types of fuzz. While most mammals are covered with hair or fur, some mammals, like adult dolphins, have glabrous skin. You might describe a shiny apple or a naked mole-rat as glabrous. In botany, a leaf without any tiny hairs or fuzz is considered glabrous. Similarly, a person with a freshly shaved head has a glabrous scalp. The word comes from the Latin word glaber, meaning "smooth or bald." This term is often used in both botany and anatomy to describe organic surfaces that are completely smooth and hairless.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Glabrous, leafy, 2–5° high; leaves oblong, sinuate-pinnatifid and spinulosely dentate, ciliate; heads in an open panicle; involucre more imbricate; flowers yellow.—Minn.,
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
Glabrous; leaves oblong-ovate, acute, scarcely serrulate; style short.—Damp soils, Va. to Ky. and Mo., and southward.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
Glabrous; or the young shoots and foliage slightly silky; or sometimes pubescent, or hirsute, with procumbent ascending, or erect stems of one to three feet.
From The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 by Favenc, Ernest
Glabrous, somewhat spinescent, 5–10° high; leaves thin, oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, often serrulate; drupe elongated-oblong, usually pointed.—Wet river banks, S. W.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
Glabrous or nearly so, 1–8° high; leaves ovate, rarely heart-shaped, pointed, serrate, green both sides; cymes flat; flowers often all fertile, rarely all radiant.—Rocky banks, Penn. to Fla., west to Iowa and Mo. 2.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
