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cupule

[kyoo-pyool]
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noun
  1. Botany.
    1. a cup-shaped whorl of hardened, cohering bracts, as in the acorn.
    2. a cup-shaped outgrowth of the thallus of certain liverworts.
    3. the apothecium of a cup fungus.
  2. Zoology. a small cup-shaped sucker or similar organ or part.
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Origin of cupule

1820–30; < New Latin cūpula, Late Latin: small tub; see cupola
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cupule

Historical Examples

  • In the Chestnut the cupule forms the bur; in the Hazel, a leafy husk.

    The Elements of Botany

    Asa Gray

  • Here the involucre, in the form of a cup at the base, is called the Cupule.

  • The latter are in clusters of a few only, and each separate flower is enclosed in a cupule of overlapping scales.

    Field and Woodland Plants

    William S. Furneaux

  • These cylindrical muscles with their cupule and tendon look like so many syringes.

  • Among the specimens of the last class, one sort, the cupule, is extremely widespread.

British Dictionary definitions for cupule

cupule

noun
  1. biology a cup-shaped part or structure, such as the cup around the base of an acorn
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Word Origin

C19: from Late Latin cūpula; see cupola
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012