Synonyms

echinate

American

[ih-kahy-neyt, -nit, ek-uh-neyt, -nit] / ɪˈkaɪ neɪt, -nɪt, ˈɛk əˌneɪt, -nɪt /

Also echinated

adjective

bristly; prickly.

echinate British

/ ˈɛkɪˌneɪt /

adjective

biology covered with spines, bristles, or bristle-like outgrowths

"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

Etymology

Origin of echinate

From the Latin word echīnātus, dating back to 1660–70. See echinus, -ate ¹

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.

Echinate, -d, ek′in-āt, -ed, adj. prickly like a hedgehog: set with prickles or bristles.—ns.

From Project Gutenberg

Echinate: Beset with pointed prominences.

From Project Gutenberg

The spikelets are arranged in groups of two, facing each other and appearing like a single spikelet with two equal echinate glumes, sessile, or obscurely pedicelled on very short, tumid, pubescent branches.

From Project Gutenberg

Spikelets fascicled unilaterally on a broad rachis, 4-glumed, glumes not echinate 13.

From Project Gutenberg

Trachys.Spikelets binate and all round the rachis, 3-glumed, glumes echinate 14.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023