excurrent
Americanadjective
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running out or forth.
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Zoology. giving passage outward; affording exit.
the excurrent canal of certain sponges.
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Botany.
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having the axis prolonged so as to form an undivided main stem or trunk, as the stem of the spruce.
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projecting beyond the apex, as the midrib in certain leaves.
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adjective
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zoology having an outward flow, as certain pores in sponges, ducts, etc
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botany
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(of veins) extending beyond the margin of the leaf
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having an undivided main stem or trunk, as the spruce and other conifers
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flowing or running in an outward direction
Etymology
Origin of excurrent
1595–1605; < Latin excurrent- (stem of excurrēns ) present participle of excurrere to run forth. See ex- 1, current
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.
In certain knots, the excurrent siphons of different shipworms appeared to be wrestling with each other in competition, pulling incurrent siphons away from groping the excurrent ones.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2021
Each shipworm has an incurrent siphon, which takes in water, and an excurrent siphon, which expels waste.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2021
A few species, however, such as the Sweet Gum and the Sugar-maple, show the excurrent stem while young, yet even these have a deliquescent stem later in life.
From Trees of the Northern United States Their Study, Description and Determination by A. C. (Austin Craig) Apgar
Where they are of considerable extent, or where even small they are very numerous, they serve to retain the flood waters, delivering them slowly to the excurrent streams.
From Outlines of the Earth's History A Popular Study in Physiography by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
Achenes top-shaped, 5-costate, villous; pappus of 5–10 long thin scales, awn-tipped by the excurrent nerve.—Erect herbs with alternate leaves and large showy heads of yellow or purplish fragrant flowers on terminal or scapiform peduncles.
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 Asa Gray
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.
