extensile

[ik-sten-suhl, -sahyl]

adjective

Chiefly Zoology, Anatomy.

1. capable of being extended; adapted for stretching out; extensible; protrusible.

Other Word Forms

• nonextensile adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of extensile¹

First recorded in 1735–45; extens(ion) + -ile

Example Sentences

It has an excessively long, slender muzzle, and a worm-like, extensile tongue.

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Three thousand of them, for a single meal, he has been known to lick out of a hill with his long, round, extensile, sticky tongue.

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Bill shorter than the head, straight, conical; tongue long and extensile; nostrils without bristles, partly closed by a membrane; wings with the second primary somewhat the longest; tail-feathers soft and flexible.

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Most of the caterpillars have oval, slug-shaped, smooth bodies, with the under surface flattened, and very small heads, which in many species can be extended by means of an extensile neck.

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The only other North American birds that have a tongue built upon this plan are the hummingbirds, in which also it is extensile.

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