imbricate

American  

[im-bri-kit, -keyt, im-bri-keyt] / ˈɪm brɪ kɪt, -ˌkeɪt, ˈɪm brɪˌkeɪt /

adjective

1. overlapping in sequence, as tiles or shingles on a roof.

2. of, relating to, or resembling overlapping tiles, as decoration or drawings.

3. Biology. overlapping like tiles, as scales or leaves.

4. characterized by or as if by overlapping shingles.

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verb (used with or without object)

imbricated, imbricating

1. to overlap, as tiles or shingles.

imbricate British  

adjective

1. architect relating to or having tiles, shingles, or slates that overlap

2. botany (of leaves, scales, etc) overlapping each other

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verb

1. (tr) to decorate with a repeating pattern resembling scales or overlapping tiles

Other Word Forms

• imbricately
  adverb
• imbrication
  noun
• imbricative
  adjective
• nonimbricate
  adjective
• nonimbricated
  adjective
• nonimbricately
  adverb
• nonimbricating
  adjective
• nonimbricative
  adjective
• subimbricate
  adjective
• subimbricated
  adjective
• subimbricately
  adverb
• subimbricative
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of imbricate

1650–60; < Late Latin imbricātus tiled with imbrices, shaped like such a tile or tiling, equivalent to imbric- (stem of imbrex ) imbrex + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Thallus oblong with rounded lobes, distinctly areolate and porose, with imbricate sublunate scales beneath; gemmæ in crescent-shaped receptacles.

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 Gray, Asa

The pileus is sessile, or sometimes narrowed at the base into a short stem, the caps often numerous and crowded together in an overlapping or imbricate manner.

From Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. by Atkinson, George Francis

The imbricate and the convolute modes sometimes vary one into the other, especially in the corolla.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Branches clustered; leaves loose, imbricate on the branches, round-ovate, entire; perianth pyriform, slightly compressed and repand, smooth, obscurely carinate beneath and gibbous toward the apex.

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 Gray, Asa

Sepals and petals colored alike, in three or more rows of three, imbricate.

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 Gray, Asa