circumnutate
Americanverb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of circumnutate
1875–80; circum- + nutate < Latin nūtātus, past participle of nūtāre to nod in assent, sway, totter
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.
See Examples For:
We may therefore infer that an old and only moderately sensitive leaf does not circumnutate plainly; but we shall soon see that it by no means follows that such a leaf is absolutely motionless.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
The lowest members of the vegetable series, the Thallogens, apparently circumnutate.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
By 7.15 P.M. it was asleep and vertically dependent, but continued to circumnutate as long as observed, until 11 P.M.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
That an arched hypocotyl or epicotyl, with the two legs fixed in the ground, should be able to circumnutate, seemed to us, until we had read Prof. Wiesner's observations, an inexplicable fact.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
The sheath-like cotyledons of the Gramineae circumnutate, that is, move to all sides, as plainly as do the hypocotyls or epicotyls of any dicotyledonous plants.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
Both these leaves certainly circumnutated, making within the above period two, or two and a half, small, irregular ellipses.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
Movement of bead of filament magnified 20 times, here reduced to one-half of original scale. that the epicotyl circumnutated during the whole time.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
It therefore circumnutated in a very simple manner, making a single large ellipse every 24 h., for the ascending and descending lines did not coincide.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
There can be no doubt that this little plant circumnutated.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
All the individuals of the Solanum did not behave in the same manner, for the cotyledons of one circumnutated about the same spot between 2.30 and 10 P.M.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
The movement, therefore, deserves to be called one of circumnutation; for all circumnutating organs tend to describe ellipses,—that is, growth on one side is succeeded by growth on nearly but not quite the opposite side.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
The surprising fact was established, that all the parts or organs of plants, whilst they continue to grow, are continually revolving, or circumnutating as Darwin called it.
From Life of Charles Darwin by Bettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
It went on circumnutating in nearly the same position for two days.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
In the course of the present volume it will be shown that apparently every growing part of every plant is continually circumnutating, though often on a small scale.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
Brassica oleracea: circumnutating movement of buried and arched hypocotyl, with the two legs of the arch tied together, traced on horizontal glass during 33 ½ hours.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
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.
