foliate
Americanadjective
verb (used without object)
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to put forth leaves.
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to split into thin leaflike layers or laminae.
verb (used with object)
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to shape like a leaf or leaves.
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to decorate with foils or foliage.
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to form into thin sheets.
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to spread over with a thin metallic backing.
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Printing. to number the folios or leaves, as distinguished from pages, of (a manuscript or book).
adjective
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relating to, possessing, or resembling leaves
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in combination
trifoliate
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(of certain metamorphic rocks, esp schists) having the constituent minerals arranged in thin leaflike layers
verb
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(tr) to ornament with foliage or with leaf forms such as foils
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to hammer or cut (metal) into thin plates or foil
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(tr) to coat or back (glass, etc) with metal foil
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(tr) to number the leaves of (a book, manuscript, etc) Compare paginate
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(intr) (of plants) to grow leaves
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of foliate
First recorded in 1620–30, foliate is from the Latin word foliātus leafy. See folium, -ate 1
Vocabulary lists containing foliate
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:
A gold cuff thought to have been decoration on a royal stool is embossed with lavish foliate patterns suggestive of leaves on a kum tree, a type of banyan for which Kumasi is named.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
The design featured a foliate design on an "ornate aubergine coloured" background, the catalogue said.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2023
They are normally described by art historians as foliate heads, and they are, essentially, a decorative trope.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2023
Made from creamy synthetic scuba knit — which holds shape very well — it has a 20-foot train painted and printed with slightly pixelated gold foliate pattern based on a sketch by Mr. Lagerfeld.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2016
The practical importance of the condition is that, as the foliate papilla is prominent and red, it is liable to be mistaken on superficial examination for a commencing epithelioma.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Alexander Miles
Metamorphic rock textures are foliated, non-foliated, or lineated are described below.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Boxwood: English boxwood is bright green and densely foliated with rounded leaves.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2016
Even if formed during regional metamorphism, quartzite does not tend to be foliated because quartz crystals don’t align with the directional pressure.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
One of the results of directed pressure and sheer stress is that rocks become foliated — meaning that they’ll have a directional fabric.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
As the degree of metamorphism increases, the lenticles diminish in size, and the intervening crushed and foliated matrix increases in amount, until at last it may form the entire mass of the rock.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 6 "Geodesy" to "Geometry" by Various
The ash was foliating on the 29th of April, the oak on the 28th.
From The Delectable Duchy by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
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.